What to do if designers pass off other's logo art as their own?

I had a number of entries into my first contest take art from other companies and pass it off as their own. One was such a prominent product that there’s no way it wouldn’t have been copyrighted, but it was obscure enough that I didn’t recognize it. Many others had watermarks for the originator of the art poorly cropped. Is there a method to deal with such issues? I’d hate to see someone pay a reward to these folks only to get a cease and desist later.

1 Like

This is certainly not acceptable and against our polices. Please use the chat function in the lower right hand corner of our website to report these entries to the Squadhelp.com team.

1 Like

Also, they’re allowed to use any art they’d like as long as they own it. If they paid for it it still belongs to them was the answer I received when I inquired so it does not have to be produced per se by them, they just have to own it.

@Dansma - Owning art has many different meanings. It’s all about following proper rules regarding copyrights.

@Grant, Is it more like a license to use?

Thanks for the comment, Dansma. I am 99.9% certain the most egregious offender did not own the art submitted. I’m suspicious of others, but forwarded them to SquadHelp to investigate. I’ve had numerous original entries, and I’m very happy with the contest so far.

@LauraE - I cannot speak conclusively on copyright law. For clarification, here is a list of some different forms of copyright protection and use agreements:

  • A company or individual can purchase the rights to use copyright
    materials for themselves (e.g. Squadhelp can use the images on
    Squadhelp’s website, social media, forum, etc.)

  • A company or individual can purchase the rights to reuse and sell
    copyrighted material

  • Copyrighted material can be available for reuse with attribution with no purchase required

  • Copyrighted material can be available for reuse without attribution with no purchase required

At no point should any Creative break copyright rules or try to pass someone else’s work off as their own.