Hey there ... While reading some blogs ... I notice that whenever they do an article they use pictures that are related to the things that they write about ... For example : To find a review on a blog of a startup website ... They would use the logo and some screenshots of the startup business ... My question : is even this legal ? Let's say I find a nice website and decide that I am going to write some things about it on my blog ... I would just put their logo as a part of the content article .... would that be allowed ?? Because it seems that everyone does it .... -FOP-
Logo's are subject to trademarks, so you could run into issues using the logo. Best practice would be to contact the site in question and ask their permission before doing so. In most cases you are unlikely to run into any issues, but the chance still exist. Screenshots of the site for use as thumbnails is considered as fair use and shouldn't be a problem.
You know ... blogs like readwriteweb ... they do alot of reviews ... so you believe that they ask all the subjects in question for permission ? Or they just write and that;s it ? -FOP-
Trademarks can be used by non-owners for the purpose of product comparison, review, and analysis. Review and analysis also applies to copyright. Sounds simple, right? Not even close. The fair use doctrine (the copyright and trademark fair use guideleine are close, but different) is merely a guideline. With trademarks, for example, courts prefer that you use a word mark over a logo when ever possible. Usage should be no more than necessary, etc.... THe answer to your question is that in the case of review sites, it is within the realm of being legal. Whether specific examples step outside the boundaries of what they are allowed to do could be a different story.
I don't know how they go about it, and frankly it doesn't matter much. Regardless of whether they ask permission or not, it is still best practice to get the permission of the trademark holder to ensure that you won't run into any issues. If it was me I'd definitely take the time to get permission or rather not use the logos. The thing is that as soon as you use a logo on your site it means that the possibility exists that people might think that you are affiliated with the company the logo belongs to, which would be frowned upon by the trademark holder. I know a while back Google asked several bloggers to remove the Google logo from their blogs to ensure that visitors don't get the perception that that blog was affiliated with Google. See Google's Guidelines for Brand Features as an example of how a company views their trademark and it's usage. Like Bluegrass pointed out, each usage would have to be judged on an individual basis.