Trademarked logos ... ok to use?

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zortation

zortation

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bleepedy_bloops
I'm putting together a livery using a (government owned) mail service in my country as inspiration. My idea is to use their logos on the car. Is this potentially a problem? I have seen one other design from a guy who used his country's mail service logos on a car, just wondering if these things differ depending on laws in different countries.

:confused:
 
I just emailed the company.

:)

I will post their response here when I receive a reply.

:)
 
I don’t think anyone in the history of ever has asked permission to make a livery using trademarked logos on GT Sport.

I’m pretty sure the livery editor feature falls under fair use, so you should be good to go without asking anyone.
 
Sending them a query like that is a bad way of gaining unwanted attention to yourself and this game. If this government-owned company is trigger-happy with copyright legalities, they can just start a lawsuit against Sony. This has already happened with Virag with the GT5/6 roadside advertisements that appeared in Monza. Some companies are just run by cronies, and the worst scenario is that they could even scrutinise you for attempting it.

Think of it like this. If you come from a dictatorial country and have connections with the powerful higher ranks, would you show them some cheeky Countryball comic lampooning about your country made by a complete online stranger from another continent?

The SVG uploader is unique because SVG files are technically traced, manipulated lines of geometry that resemble a visual, and therefore it is 100% legal to vector copyrighted logos because they're creative commons owned by you or by an individual artist. If you made a vinyl group of that company in Forza's vinyl group system (using in-game primitive shapes to save a fixed design with a collection of individual shapes), you wouldn't get a copyright strike. Uploaded decals only get taken down by PD if they violate simple misconduct rules (profanity or inappropriate) or are planned to be added into the game, like the FIA decals.

When EmuParadise shut down, it wasn't after years of service till they were sadly closed by legal C&D lawsuit. If you play 'nice guy' now, you would probably never get your mail service decal into the game.
 
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Normalaatsra
Sending them a query like that is a bad way of gaining unwanted attention to yourself and this game. If this government-owned company is trigger-happy with copyright legalities, they would just start a lawsuit against Sony. This has already happened with Virag with the GT5/6 roadside advertisements that appeared in Monza. Some companies are just run by cronies, and the worst scenario is that they would even scrutinise you for attempting it.
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The difference is Sony Interactive Entertainment is a massive business with a lot of money. No company in their right mind would persue an individual for trademark infringement in a case like this unless it was provable to be detrimental to the IP holder or profitable to the person in question because there's no value associated with it. They may request it's taken down to avoid precedent, but the idea that personal liability would result just doesn't play out in the real world.
 
Most of the brands I’ve contacted to get some logos were pretty happy (for the few which actually answered me). But I must admit they were mostly race-related brands.

Teams and drivers are also usually friendly when you make their cars too.

beyond72
Careful, they could sue you for all your in game credits..
Click to expand...

I hope they won’t seize my 250 GTO and P4. I’ve not declared them to my local tax service.
 
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The postal agency got back to me. They basically told me that since they weren't sponsors of the game, that I do not include their logos in the livery design. That's fine.

Funny,... I had this fantasy conversation in my head where they replied with an email that said... "Well, how about if we get our branding specialists to create the design for your car, we in fact have several fans of the game you mentioned and I'm sure they would love to make something. Just tell us which specific vehicle(s) you were thinking of."

:p
 
@zortation Your GTP profile says you're from Toronto, so I assume you're looking to do a Canada Post livery.

This is the only Canada Post decal I found in the discovery section, but I wouldn't worry about making more.

4755811109088298504_1.png
 
The disclaimer in the opening of the game releases all liability to the player, and I'm sure PD and Sony. (No way would the lawyers let that pass thru without knowing) Also, any downloaded decal is technically owned to PD servers (not your ps4 game data) and can therefore be removed from their server at any time. And, I'm going to guess that since Sony and PD are in Japan, I'm curious if copyright laws carry internationally. Finally, as mentioned no money is being transfered. My advice is do what you got to do and enjoy the feature. I'm sure if a complaint is filed, PD will remove the decal, and any and all liability fall on them. I'm sure most companies or entities see it as free advertising, and unless represented and reported in a very negative way, then and only then would we probably see a complaint.
 

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