licensing fair-use public-domain advertisements
How to properly add creator information when the art work is done with other companies&#39; logo?
<p>For a straightforward example, I would like to add a watermark on all the pictures hosted on my website, but at the same time, some images have other companies' logos and other text.</p>
<p>Sure I don't own any other companies' logos, <em><strong>BUT</strong></em> still would like to add mysite.com as a watermark on those pictures since I would like to prevent other people just cloning my content easily.</p>
<p>How can we properly add creator information when the artwork is done with other companies' logos?  We just treat all those pictures which have other companies' logos and text as creative &quot;artwork&quot; (maybe a better word)?</p>
<p>Below is an example, where my picture has google logo, but I added some other text on it(mysite.com as watermark, and other text give more information)</p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/agQen.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/agQen.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>

<h2>Doing so is illegal</h2>
<p><strong>Copyright</strong></p>
<p>You don’t own the copyright in the logo. Modifying another person’s copyrighted art, such as by adding a watermark, requires their permission or a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use" rel="nofollow noreferrer">fair use</a> defence. Based on your plan , I don’t believe you have either.</p>
<p><strong>Trademark</strong></p>
<p>Logos are almost always protected by trademark (Google’s certainly is). You are not allowed to use a trademark in such a way that confuses their goods and services with yours. Putting your mark over theirs does this.</p>

<p>From the image in this question, it seems that your &quot;arteork&quot; in tht case was essentially the Google logo. Using this, or a derivative work of it without permission from Google (which is unlikely to be granted) is quite likely to be copyright infringement. If the &quot;artwork&quot; accompanies comment on or criticism of Google, or some of Google's actions or servies, and serves to identify the subject of the discussion, it <strong>might</strong> be considered <em><strong>fair use</strong></em> under US law, if it is very clear to any reasonable viewer that the site makes no claim of ownership. The trade mark issues could perhaps be handled by a discalimer, perhaps something like:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Google name and logo are trademarks of Google inc. Mysite is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google, and does not own these trademarks. They are used only to identify the topic of discussion.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Even then, watermarking such an image in a way that suggests ownership would ber dubious in my view. If there was artwork that was primarily your own original creation, but included as company logo as a subsidiary feature, that might be difference.</p>
<p>It might be wise to consult a lawyer with copyright and trademark expertise before continuing to use such &quot;artwork&quot;, with or without a watermark.</p>
