Quote:
Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi
Is the use of the FIRST logo or name for profit legal?
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It depends. The wordmark and logo are registered service marks (an outgrowth of trademark law), so you couldn't use them in a way that would imply endorsement for something that FIRST didn't actually support. In terms of copyright law, the FIRST name and wordmark are not copyrightable because—at least in U.S. law—even stylized text is considered to be insufficiently original.
But the real question is whether the logo is copyrightable. Simple shapes aren't, but I
suspect that the FIRST logo would pass the
threshold of originality, and therefore be copyrightable. (The only way to know for sure is to litigate.) If that were the case, reproduction of the logo for profit would likely be infringement. (Although copyrighted works can be used under an assertion of
fair use, it could be difficult to make such a claim in the context of a for-profit activity.)