Brand logos in commercial stock photography?

Mark.A

Mark.A

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I've been looking into stock photography and was wondering about the brand logo's in commercial images of products such as remote controls, mobile phones, computer equipment, photography equipment, etc.

How does it work with these kind of shots? Can I take photos of a product I own and sell the images to a stock library? :shrug:
 
You can take the photo but if you wish to leave the logo in you would need a property release from the manufacturer. The usual alternative is to clone the logo out or try and shoot so it does not show. Some equipment, such as Ipods I think, are copyright in themselves so should be avoided. Do not just blur the logo as this generally looks messy and the image would be refused.

If you are selling the image as editorial you are more likely to get away with the tighter restrictions of Royalty Free

HTH
 
No I woulldn't just blur the logo, lol. So basically it's acceptable so long as the branding isn't shown? Except for the odd patented design like the Ipod.

What about the images used in manuals and guides? I take it the photographer would have to have property releases for the images they use in them? For example, if I decided to write a book on the Nikon creative lighting system I'd need the property releases from Nikon for any images of Nikon flashes? (if they had the logo showing) Would this be the same for an online tutorial?
 
No I'm not actually writing a book, lol. Just an example. I got some shots of my Nikon speedlights that I thought looked quite good when I was testing a ring flash, which then set me thinking about this kind of commercial photography and the branding implications.

I am building my own website and do plan on including tutorials on there so the information may well come in handy then. If I wanted to use my own images of my photography equipment on my website would I still need a property release from Nikon?
 
you do need permission IIRC, i have had to get permission just for small logos on promo materials at work, no commercial value, just samples..
 
Thanks for that. If I remove the logo's from the images though it won't be a problem?
 
I'm not convinced all the advice in here is correct as there appears to be some missunderstanding between the differences in Copyright, Trademarks and Registered Trademarks - I don't pretend to be an expert but I suggest you read the UK Photographer's Rights Guide as it contains a section on photographing Copyright & Trademarks on the 2nd page and then perhaps read the comments on the blog.

It's also worth investigating the differences between Copyright and Trademarks from the UK Government IP website
 
Hi Simon, Mark initially said he was looking into stock photography and apart from the Nikon question I answered on that basis. Stock companies will not accept images for RF if they have logos, trademarks etc. The rules for individual countries do not count in these instances it is more what the different sites require (and they can all be slightly different). :)
 
I just did a search for 'speedlight flash' on shutterstock and I can see that the images already there have had the logo removed but there are indeed images there of speedlights. I just checked the images of cameras too and thats the same. Lots of DSLR images without the model or branding on. I can only presume that this practice is okay as others have obviously been doing it for a while and it is accepted by shutterstock? If it was illegal then I'd imagine shutterstock wouldn't accept them.
 
I posted this on the 'UK Photographers Rights Guide' blog:

I was recently considering starting to shoot images of products for stock photography libraries when I was directed to your guide by friends on a photography forum. Your site has already cleared up my initial concerns about branding and logo's in stock photography but I do have another concern.

I am currently building my own website, which will be a commercial site, where I also plan to include tutorials on photography freely available to the public. My concern is about the brand logo's and trademarks on the equipment in my images that I'd use in the tutorials.

Is it okay for me to use my images in this way, with the branding/logo's on display? If not then would it be okay if the images didn't show the branding/logo's?
Click to expand...

...and Linda Macpherson replied:

In most cases, brand names and logos are trademarks, which are infringed only by using the mark on the same goods or services in respect of which the mark is registered. There is an exception for so-called "famous" marks which can be infringed if they are used in connection with any goods or services, but only where this takes unfair advantage of or is detrimental to, the reputation of the mark. It is most unlikely that using trademarked goods to illustrate photography tutorials on how to photograph the goods, if that is what you mean, would infringe the trademark.
If the logo consists of artwork that might be protected by copyright, the images might infringe the copyright, unless the logo was incidental to the image as a whole.
Click to expand...

So it looks like having the brand names in the images won't be a problem in my site tutorials.
 
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