Should government logos be trademarked?

by kir Posted 2012/07/19 22:02:03

Related Topics: Obama, Military, Media, Domain, Funds, Politics, Logo, Fair, Government, Taxpayer, Money, 2012, Trouble

10 votes
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	Government logos should be public domain.	6 votes	60%
	They can be trademarked, but politics should be fair use.	3 votes	30%
	They should be trademarked and not used in politics.	0 votes	0%
	Undecided	1 vote	10%

It seems an anti-Obama group has gotten into some trouble by using military logos on their webpage as well as on some other media. http://soforamerica.org/

But our taxpayer money is what funds the government--we spend roughly $1T a year on military at this point--so shouldn't we technically own these logos?

More polls by kir

InoYamanaka 2012/08/18 00:06:58

Government logos should be public domain.

+1
I'm for that. Is it just me, or is it sometimes like the Government is owns us instead of in reverse?

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George Romney 2012/07/20 00:45:45

They can be trademarked, but politics should be fair use.

+4
They can be trademarked in the sense that groups can't claim to be official military organizations when they're not (can you imagine a scam involving groups pretending to be army credit unions taking money? Because it's happened before).

But for political purposes when it's pretty obvious that these are veterans speaking out their political beliefs? That's just fine.

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Nimitz 2012/07/19 23:09:32

Government logos should be public domain.

Government logos ARE in the public domain.

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kir to Nimitz 2012/07/19 23:14:26

+1
Oh? Then there would be nice case against these people. Can you provide the evidence for that?

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Nimitz to kir 2012/07/19 23:17:20

Not currently; just what I was taught in 'scruel.' In general, though, it makes sense. The government is presumably us--the public. Any artistic or technical efforts on the part of government belong to us--the public.

Still, that doesn't mean I'd chance using the USPS logo on the side of a FedEx truck. :-)

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kir to Nimitz 2012/07/19 23:33:59

+1
For profit is definitely not fair use. I consider political groups fair use though.

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TuringsChild 2012/07/19 22:14:47

Government logos should be public domain.

+2
The Military belongs to the People, NOT to the Authoritarians we HIRE to represent us.

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kir to Turings... 2012/07/19 22:19:21

+1
I'm thinking about writing a whole article on the treatment of "government" intellectual properties. I think that any and all intellectual property funded by taxpayer money should be the property of the people to do with as they please.

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