So, I am working on a project and wanted to verify something. If I took a photo of a tractor (it's logo may be showing), and use it when designing a piece of scrapbook 12x12 paper to sell, that is illegal, right?
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It's a gray area Laura, depending on what your comfortable with. I would definitely remove the logo and if you did some other alterations to it, it may be fine.
Interesting you asked about a tractor. I designed a farm kit with tractor. I made the tractor green and yellow (no logo) and found out that green and yellow tractors are trademarked by JohnDeer so I changed it to red. I never thought about a color being trademarked before.
Another interesting note: Fiskars scissors owns a pumpkin orange scissors rights.
It's specifically the colors in conjunction with the object. Part of the branding.
Thank you ladies.
Wow... so you CAN trademark a colour? We had several flame-wars in the Sonic the Hedgehog and furry fandoms on deviantart fifteen years ago. Every non-furry was saying you can't trademark colours. Guess they were wrong.
Technically yes, you can trademark a color, but that doesn't mean you have ownership. It means you're the only one who can use that color in a certain way for your particular industry. In the case of John Deere, it's specifically green and yellow in conjunction with the name and deer logo in the industry of outdoor power equipment.
Source: Business Insider article (has other examples too)
I've seen flame-wars like that before (Sonic fandom and Deviantart forum frequenter here). The problem I usually see is someone trying to prevent everyone else from using a specific shade of [insert color here, often acid green or neon blue] because they "trademarked" it. Which is baloney (for one thing, you have to actually register trademarks, unlike copyrights, and you can't copyright a color).
Ah! I see... what's your name on deviantart? I'm sanjouin-dacapo! Used to do a lot of crappy Sonic fanart under another name and yeah... I was kind of a creepo due to my aspergers. Started learning how to behave better after a few rather humiliating incidents on livejournal.
My main DA account is linked as my blog in my profile, but the username is ah-kaziya (it's an old username before I settled on one single online handle, and the only reason I still have it is because I haven't paid for a membership to change it). It hasn't been properly updated in a while, which is a failing on my part.
Cool! Your current style is cute! I did see your first upload - a pic of Inuyasha that looked dodge/burnt but the anatomy looks good. Wonder if the Sonic fandom has calmed down over the years... back when I was heavily involved in it, it was nonstop drama.