Re: Button I'm planning on giving out, thoughts?
 

Indiana FIRST is 100% serious and FIRST isn't even going after them. I'd say anything's fair game.

Re: Button I'm planning on giving out, thoughts?
 

Unless, you know, Indiana FIRST did something silly like ask permission from HQ before doing it. Or read the branding standards and make sure their logo conformed to those at the time (standards can change; I want to say there was a logo change in the last 10 years or so). You'll also notice that it's a rather different logo--no triangle, and "Indiana" is in there.

The difference between that logo and the one under discussion is that the Indiana FIRST logo is clearly different than the FIRST logo. Ask somebody who doesn't know about FIRST. But the logo on the proposed button isn't substantially different--there's a couple of letters different in a rather noisy area. Could be confusing.

When it comes to branding, companies can really get touchy about perceived misuse of their brands/names. I'm not saying that FIRST would come after you with a platoon of lawyers--they probably won't--but if you ask permission (with a copy of the image) and they say it's OK, then it is OK, no question about it. If they say it's not OK, then it's not OK.