FIRST logo manipulation

[mtrawls]

Originally Posted by ToMMan b182

While FIRST says that you should not alter the logo, as long as you are not selling a product with the logo in question, and you are in fact a FIRST team, I dont think you will have a problem.

Trademark law (and copyright and patent law for that matter) is a nebulous subject, for sure. However, this seems like a good place to clear things up a bit. For one, I recommend, if anyone is interested, to check out this [wikipedia.org] and this [publaw.com].

Now, to offer some thoughts. The primary reason of a trademark is to protect the consumer -- so they can associate a particular mark with a particular company (for better or for worse). However, it also offers protection to the company -- but this protection only exists so long as the company *actively* defends the trade mark. This explains why FIRST wants you to get it's approval before using the trademark or any derivative.

And while FIRST has a protected right to this trademark, you also have a competing right of free speech. So, who wins? It all depends ... there's a thing known as "fair use" that says you can use any trademark you want under certain conditions (imagine trying to give a review of a Ford car, for instance, if you couldn't use the word Ford because the company forbit it!) The basics of it is that there is no confusion -- e.g., your use of Ford can't imply that Ford endorses you or that you are somehow affiliated with them. If I want to sell a soda and I put the label Coke-a-cola on it, odds are this will confuse some people. Here's a quote from one of the linked articles:

The fair use defense if it is to be successful must meet the following requirements: (1) the author's use of the mark must accurately describe the trademark owner's product or service; (2) the author must use the mark in a non-trademark manner and not as a source identifier of the author's work; and (3) the author's use must be in good faith.

All this considered, it seems that you'd be well advised to ask FIRST's permission. It is a take on their logo, and if you're using it for a FIRST-related club, there's a fair chance that someone, especially young children which are your targeted audience, might confuse your use with affiliation, presumably failing "fair use."