** Just want to be clear that im not looking for official legal advice that i'll be relying on, this is just to get an idea of the playing field.**
Hey guys,
Does anyone have a definite answer about the legality of running landing pages using major companies logos and trademarked names? Eg Sweepstake landers where you might claim that Apple is giving away a prize, or Tesco, Walmart, Woolworths, etc is giving away grocery vouchers.
Im just wondering what the consequences might be of having my server hosting landers that are claiming that X big company is giving away all these prizes, even though it has nothing to do with Apple, Amazon, or whoever.
Has anyone ever spoken to a lawyer about this or have any definite info?
Cheers!
You are not allowed to use anyone's logo without their explicit permission + you are not allowed to engage in "misleading" advertising (apple is not giving away any prize)
That's the law.
Still many guys do it and get away with it. Its up to you how much risk you wanna take.
Am no lawyer, but common sense is it is stricly illegal. Not even a grey area...
Thanks guys - anyone know what sort of arrangements the advertisers and owners of the sweep offers would have? They couldn't all be doing it dodgy.
That's between the offer owner and the logo owner and one can only speculate.
Look at it this way, let's say you are running a sweep stakes at your school's PTA meeting just for fun. You can make a flyer with the details, put a picture with the iPad prize on it and an Apple logo. Will Apple prosecute you? No, not worth their time and money (lawyers cost $$$).
It could be the same situation with the offer. They may not have the paper saying they have a right to use the logo, but the cost of prosecution may not be worth it for anyone to pursue them. Besides, in general, for a law suit to be considered, it needs to meet several criteria - one of which is having a party that has clearly suffered concrete damages from the activity. If the offer is dodgy, the first people to receive complains would be the country's fair trade commission, which could then notify Apple, etc etc etc.
I take a simpler position - the offer owner is paying me for a service: to deliver leads. What he does with those leads is up to him. I am responsible for my own advertising materials, placements, respecting the specs the offer owner has for the type of traffic he wants, etc. If he them decides to do something scammy with those leads, that's entirely on him and I can't be held responsible, especially since he didn't say he had some criminal enterprise on the back end.
In short, make sure you're above board, clear everything with the account manager at your network you're not sure of. KEEP ALL LOGS, just in case, and send all the juice the offer can handle. Best of luck.
In regards of the logo: make a split test with and without logo. You'll notice soon that it's not worth the trouble.