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Are icons of apps copyright protected?
- Thread starter hajime
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The iOS Phone and Mail icons are part of the OS, so are most likely under copyright. LinkedIn's is available if you conform with certain guidelines.
Android is a bit more of a grey area; if the icons are part of the open-source offering then it follows that they'd be usable.
Android is a bit more of a grey area; if the icons are part of the open-source offering then it follows that they'd be usable.
Talking out of my behind here (have not dived into details re: which license Android is under), but, if doing software development, might be required to provide source code as it might be considered a derivative work.
iOS, guessing copywrited, as I seem to recall Apple sued Samsung for having icons on their original phones that were too simlar to iOS (along with the early hw being iPhone knockoffs).
You’re thinking of trademark, not copyright. Whether you can use them depends on how you’d like to do so.
Just to show the ways you can be contacted? That’s fine. Trademark protection is about preventing the use of marks in ways that creates confusion for consumers.
[doublepost=1516856910][/doublepost]Now... if you are getting them printed by a third party, a printer might get concerned and refuse to print any logos. But if you want to know whether you will have legal problems because of using them, the answer is no.
[doublepost=1516856910][/doublepost]Now... if you are getting them printed by a third party, a printer might get concerned and refuse to print any logos. But if you want to know whether you will have legal problems because of using them, the answer is no.
Android doesn't have a licenses because there are many parts to android which all have different licenses. The open source part of Android will all be GPL/BSD but anything beyond that to include the GUI might not be.
Not unless you get permission from each company or designer. It’s considered trade dress.
Sounds like someone works in the field of trade dress and trademark, or you have some experience with it.
Just to add on to DoubleFlyaway, an icon like twitter or linkedIn can be used on your business card as it is an indicator of a service, not as an endorsement. Linkedin does require the ® after the name though and it must have a white background, according to the written legal garbage on its site.
It was never my main area of practice, but I have worked on a couple high profile trademark cases.
Anyone can sue for any reason. Doesn't mean it would get very far.
Trademark cases have a fair use defense. You can use existing trademarks for descriptions of the service/product, use it to refer to a service/product, etc. Putting a social network logo on your business card or site to refer to your account would fall well within that. Using the word "LinkedIn" to refer to linkedin.com is fair use, same with using the word "NFL" in a news article. If fair use was not established - you would never be allowed to refer to any trademark protected word or logo... ever.. for any reason. That would just be silly. (Ok, that's extreme, but you get my point)
Copyrights (totally different protection) also have fair use. That is why, despite the NFLs warnings about not recording any second of a game on TV, you are well within your rights to use clips for media reporting, parody, etc.
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