Hello, I'm pretty new at affiliate marketing. I'm promoting a product in my website. This product is featured in abc news, and other news companies. So in my website content, I would like to place something like this. This product received so many great reviews from many news companies. This xxxxxx product is featured in many news companies like: < insert ABC NEWS LOGO > <insert CNN> <another news logo> etc. Is that ok? Is that legal? Fair use or Copyright infringement? Thanks for the reply.
It is not OK. Using the logo in a commercial use like that is almost certainly NOT fair use under the copyright laws. It also likely violates the companies' trademark rights. The concept of "fair use" doesn't apply under trademark law. There are some uses of a trademark that are non-infringing (for example, if you are writing a review of a product whose name is trademarked, you can refer to the product by its name without being liable for infringement). It would be impossible to write about the product without naming it. Similarly, saying "as seen on ABC News" is probably OK even though ABC NEWS is a registered trademark. It would be nearly impossible to identify the news program without naming it. Using a logo like you described is not necessary. You are using the logo to illustrate your point, which clearly can be stated without the logo. Therefore, it is probably an infringement. Of course, ABC may not care, but that is up to ABC.