Are Logos Unique or Replicas of Past Inspirations?

The Olympic branding is iconic and well known internationally. And the requirement that each host city creates its own logo allows each event to be personalised. London’s 2012 design (below right) was vibrant but not to everyone’s taste, while Rio has unsurprisingly produced a colourful image (below left) to suit its culturally-flamboyant style. Tokyo will host the 2020 Olympics – and although its logo may not be as funky as its predecessors – it has attracted controversial attention.

The start of September saw Tokyo’s Olympic organisers embarrassingly withdraw and abandon its recently released logos. Why? Because of claims that the logo had been copied. Although organisers originally rebutted the claims, news quickly followed that the selected logo had been dropped and public reports revealed that the designer had previously admitted to copying online material.

So, how do designers correctly recycle past work and use it as inspiration?  What are the rules on copyright and what can businesses do to avoid being accused of reproduction? What precautions can be taken when working on a logo?

All designers have to start somewhere. It’s normal to use existing content as inspiration, but it’s important to transform it by incorporating new themes and modern styles to appeal to the target audience or to fit the market.  But, how do you differentiate between inspiration and reproduction?

The first and most fundamental rule is DO NOT COPY. In the UK, copyright is an automatic right that comes into existence when a work is created.  There’s no need to register the existence of the right, which generally runs for the creator’s life plus 70 years – it’s no short-lived feat.

If an entire existing work is replicated, it’s not difficult to understand why this is a breach of copyright. It’s also worth mentioning that content found online is not copyright free or free to use, however easy it may be to download. Even if licences are purchased to use these works, it is not within your right to adapt them freely and you will not be able to include them in your company’s brand.

But using design elements from an existing work and incorporating them into a new design is most unclear. The law on UK copyright infringement says that a substantial part of a work cannot be copied – but it doesn’t define what is meant by substantial. There is, of course, a reasonable argument that if you have taken the most distinctive part of an existing design, you have taken its core, which could therefore be a substantial amount.

To breach copyright regulations in the UK, actual copying has to take place. But this can be defended if the designer is able to demonstrate that a design was independently created rather than copied.  This means that the designer should meticulously record their design process. If you commission a third party to produce a design, you will not automatically own the copyright to the work and you won’t have control over the design process, but you could be liable for infringement if you use the design in your business…

Creating quite a due diligence burden for businesses. But you can reduce the risk of an expensive and embarrassing withdrawal with a few simple steps.

Firstly, DON’T COPY. If the work is produced in-house, educate the design team on copyright issues and make sure that they keep clear records of when and what they produce – recording the inspiration behind designs, so any unintentional copying can be recognised early on. These records will be useful if challenged and will serve to demonstrate independent creation rather than reproduction. They could also prove the designer’s entitlement to copyright in case some else is pursuing the work for copying.

If you approach an outside designer, ask lots of questions. Where did their inspiration come from?  And be sure to put in writing that the business will own the design at the end of the process.

Consider trade mark searches. These can be completed for both company names and logos – where owners register their work as trademarks – and could help to eliminate problems early on.

These steps will not necessarily completely rule out a complaint, but they will help to minimise and manage the risks that businesses face when launching new branding.