copyright trademark
Using photos from another website to sell merchandise
<p>Under what conditions is using some other brand's logos and pictures on a commercial website allowed? Could I use, for example, a picture of a Dell computer (taken from their website) of a given model to let users know I have it for sale?</p>

<p>As a legal matter, somebody (likely Dell) owns the copyright to their photos and copying them without permission is a crime, and probably a violation of their web site terms of service.  An aftermarket seller could contact dell and inquire, but it would usually be faster to clean up and take a picture of the one you wanted to sell or get permission from someone else who has taken a picture of the same model (but if the latter, be clear in your advertisement that it is the same model pictured, not the exact item pictured).</p>

<p>There may also be trademarks in the photographs or in the listing person's text.  Trademark infringement is about consumer confusion.  So anyone selling a product and using those to identify the product would want to make sure that they cannot be construed to mislead anyone about the origin of the product--that would be trademark infringement.  So if you say it is a Dell computer model so-and-so but you have swapped out the motherboard or it's actually an ASUS, or if it says Intel Inside but it's actually an AMD chip, that could be trademark infringement.</p>
