Twitter, the site where people chat to each other in 140 characters or less, and which encourages following, has posted a guide on the correct usage of its trademarks.
The issue? Most of us can wipe our behinds with it if we want to waste the paper and ink to print it out first.
This is because, according to the trademarks laws of the U.S. and Europe, the only way you can be found guilty of trademark infringement is while you are using it in the course of trade.
That’s right, selling fake Louis Vuitton handbags is trademark infringement as well as counterfeiting, but saying something like, “There’s an Android app for that!” is absolutely A-OK unless you’re doing it in an advert for a product.
So if you want to flip the bird ninety degrees and make a Batman image from it for shits and giggles, go right ahead. Just don’t attach your Photoshopped Twitter logos to DVDs you’re taking down to the local Cash Converters.
Forgot to add: If the site was taken down by a DMCA claim, that’s an abuse of it, but the fines for that crime are so pathetically small that there’s no real deterrent.
That’s why I intend to write more IP stories, Brian. While I’ll admit that my understanding of IP law isn’t perfect, it does seem to be better than that of those who make the laws. Hence my small attempts at clarifying things in this way.
Intellectual Property law is completely out of step with the digital age. There are important questions to be asked, but they’re being answered based on assumptions that are 100 years old.
The digital era needs new laws, and ones that protect small publishers more than big ones. GlossyNews was once taken offline by a baseball star that didn’t care for the way he was portrayed. It was an illegal take-down, but there’s no recourse for abuse of digital copyright laws.
And this won’t change until we get web-savvy legislators in office… so, maybe never.