intellectual-property creative-commons
Can I protect a logo against registration by publishing it to GitHub with a licence?
<p>Can I use GitHub to release a logo with the <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode" rel="nofollow noreferrer">CC BY-NC-ND</a> licence aside? Would this legally prevent anyone from registering it since the release dates are tracked by GitHub?</p>

<p>Edit: Assuming that I created the logo</p>

<p>It depends what you mean by "prevent anyone from registering it". Someone else could not validly claim copyright in a logo you create (assuming that it is complex and original enough to be protected by copyright, not all logos are). Publication, such as on GitHub, would be evidence that you had created it, or at least claimed to have done so, on a particular date.</p>

<p>That would not automatically stop someone using the logo as a trademark, and registering it as one. But if that registration was challenged, evidence that you had created the logo, and had not licensed it for commercial use, might well causwe the registration to be cancelled. As a result, no one with sense would try to use it as a trademark without your permission.</p>

<p>All this assumes that you did in fact create the logo. <s>The question doesn't say that.</s> (Now it does.) If someone else created it posting it on GitHub without permission would be copyright infringement.</p>
