copyright intellectual-property trademark
Acceptable use of trademark or logo for web links
<p>I presume that copyright does not restrict me from referring to, e.g., Acme Corp. publicly.  I also presume that if I write an online article about Acme, I am free to include links to their online material without needing permission, just as I free to include public phone numbers and addresses for them, etc.</p>

<p>But what if I want to include a link to an Acme website, using their own  logo?</p>

<p>First, copyright only protects literary and artistic works - the name of a company (or anything else) is neither - it is a fact and facts are not subject to copyright. Similarly, URLs, street addresses and phone numbers are all facts. In addition, even if these weren't facts; they lack the required threshold of creativity to qualify for copyright protection.</p>

<p>A logo <em>is</em> an artistic work and does get copyright protection.</p>

<p>I think you are confusing the IP concepts of copyright and trade mark.</p>

<p>A trade mark is a name, symbol, colour etc. which someone uses to identify their goods and services - think "brand" if you will. You are not allowed to use a trade mark if your use would create confusion that your goods and services are associated with or endorsed by the trade mark owner or in a way that is defamatory to the trade mark owner. You can use a trade mark to identify the owner of the trade mark or their goods and services.</p>

<p>Your proposed use appears to be a fair use/fair dealing for copyright and so long as your links are not defamatory the trade mark usage is fine.</p>
