The Council game using logo from Warframe

[Tellakey]

5 minutes ago, EndermanBeast said:

Both, I guess. They used their trademark logo, and they used it without permission. I would say trademark more though.

 

5 minutes ago, aswitz87 said:

It depends on if DE has copywritten the image or trademarked it.

Joking, most likely a trademark.

 

2 minutes ago, rune_me said:

Logos and brand names are always trademarked and not copyrighted. Copyright is more for content: i.e the name of a band is trademarked, the songs that band make is copyrighted.

It's worth noting that you can of course still allow people to use your trademarked logos, provided you make an agreement beforehand or the company gives permission to do so under certain circumstances. For instance you can download the Warframe logo for use on fan sites, because DE gives special permission to do that. 

 

1 minute ago, TruthArbiter said:

It's trademarked. Just scroll to the bottom of the page and there is a note in the footer that reads: Warframe and the Warframe logo are trademarks of Digital Extremes Ltd.

Well, learned something new today. Thanks all :D

I guess it's time-saving for both studios to just remove the logo from The Council. Seems like a lesser sacrifice.

[Vanille]

> Company: We have the tools to make an excellent graphics game.
> Company guy: Hey boss, we need a smol plain icon for teh gaem.
> Company: Google that S#&$.

[TrinityPrime]

26 minutes ago, Kiwinille said:

> Company: We have the tools to make an excellent graphics game.
> Company guy: Hey boss, we need a smol plain icon for teh gaem.
> Company: Google that S#&$.

Telltale Batman learned that lesson the hard way

[Sitchrea]

Yeah, DE needs lawyers on this, fast.

[WhiteCr0w]

Ha! Man, that's some lazy development. Hiring someone to do 2D/UI work should be relatively simple, but I guess they wanted to skimp out on that. Not only did they "borrow" the Lotus symbol they used that one for Running as well. Safe to say there's most likely a good deal more they "borrowed".

I really hope they get what's coming to them.

[Sitchrea]

6 minutes ago, WhiteCr0w said:

Ha! Man, that's some lazy development. Hiring someone to do 2D/UI work should be relatively simple, but I guess they wanted to skimp out on that. Not only did they "borrow" the Lotus symbol they used that one for Running as well. Safe to say there's most likely a good deal more they "borrowed".

I really hope they get what's coming to them.

Tbh DE could anything from a cease and desist order all the way to a full takedown of the entire game. The law is on their side in this.

[sixcandy]

1 minute ago, Sitchrea said:

Tbh DE could anything from a cease and desist order all the way to a full takedown of the entire game. The law is on their side in this.

 

More likely a cease and desist order for the icon and maybe compensation for using said trademarks.

[Syln]

Calm down there, it's not as if they put it in front of their title screen or whatever, they couldn't be bothered creating a few icons and google them to find some let's just hope for a peacefull outcome. 

I don't think it will need more than a few excuses and an icon replacement.

[sixcandy]

3 minutes ago, Syln said:

Calm down there, it's not as if they put it in front of their title screen or whatever, they couldn't be bothered creating a few icons and google them to find some let's just hope for a peacefull outcome. 

I don't think it will need more than a few excuses and an icon replacement.

I'm all for a peaceful outcome, just letting the creator of the Icon "Logo", which they paid to create and paid to trademark, that it is being used outside of their proprietary.

[Sitchrea]

8 minutes ago, Syln said:

Calm down there, it's not as if they put it in front of their title screen or whatever, they couldn't be bothered creating a few icons and google them to find some let's just hope for a peacefull outcome. 

I don't think it will need more than a few excuses and an icon replacement.

I wasn't saying DE should issue a takedown, just that they could. Realistically I don't think much will happen beyond a C&D order and the icon's removal, but if someone like JIm Sterling makes it sensational or trending, this may blow up into something bigger.

[rune_me]

I did some quick digging. The running logo @sixcandyfound is from a page called freepik .com 

Just picking another random icon (the compass) and using the sites search function, I found this image:

Which is clearly the icon the game also used, just rotated slightly.

There's nothing wrong using the images from freepik for your projects. That's what they are there for, and they are free to use and modify as you see fit. Wanting to believe the best, I think the developers of The Council got all their icon images from this site. Since the site's content is uploaded by users (much like YouTube, etc), somebody may very well have uploaded the Warframe logo, either unaware that it was trademarked, or as plagiarism claiming they made it themselves. The developers probably have never heard about Warframe, but just thought it was a cool image and decided to use it, like all the others they picked.

If the Warframe logo is to be found on freepik (couldn't find it, obviously the uploader if there is one, hasn't tagged it with Warframe), then DE can issue a takedown there of course. Pretty sure the siteowners will comply, since they are probably unaware of the trademark as well.

[sixcandy]

11 minutes ago, rune_me said:

I did some quick digging. The running logo @sixcandyfound is from a page called freepik .com 

Just picking another random icon (the compass) and using the sites search function, I found this image:

Which is clearly the icon the game also used, just rotated slightly.

There's nothing wrong using the images from freepik for your projects. That's what they are there for, and they are free to use and modify as you see fit. Wanting to believe the best, I think the developers of The Council got all their icon images from this site. Since the site's content is uploaded by users (much like YouTube, etc), somebody may very well have uploaded the Warframe logo, either unaware that it was trademarked, or as plagiarism claiming they made it themselves. The developers probably have never heard about Warframe, but just thought it was a cool image and decided to use it, like all the others they picked.

If the Warframe logo is to be found on freepik (couldn't find it, obviously the uploader if there is one, hasn't tagged it with Warframe), then DE can issue a takedown there of course. Pretty sure the siteowners will comply, since they are probably unaware of the trademark as well.

5

The Running icon came from a different site called Flaticon but there are also hundreds of these sites so finding the correct one with the Warframe logo would be hard if not impossible. But it's also on the person or Company to make sure that the pictures being used are not owned by other persons or company's.

[rune_me]

1 minute ago, sixcandy said:

The Running icon came from a different site called Flaticon

The one that shows up when I google it is from freepik. But it's probably just the same user uploading to multiple sites.

2 minutes ago, sixcandy said:

But it's also on the person or Company to make sure that the pictures being used are not owned by other persons or company's.

Yeah sure, they would definitely have to remove it. But just as with YouTube and other sites that allows users to upload content, responsibility always falls back to the site. That's why YouTube is so quick to take down videos without even checking if the copyright claims are true first. They don't want any hassle with lawyers so they just comply.

[TrinityPrime]

Is this a copywrite issue or a trademark issue? I was always under the impression the difference between the two was like being hunted down by a group of bounty hunter lawyers vs meeting a canadian mountie while out camping.

[sixcandy]

1 minute ago, TrinityPrime said:

Is this a copywrite issue or a trademark issue? I was always under the impression the difference between the two was like being hunted down by a group of bounty hunter lawyers vs meeting a canadian mountie while out camping.

This would be a Trademark issue

[Sitchrea]

4 minutes ago, TrinityPrime said:

Is this a copywrite issue or a trademark issue? I was always under the impression the difference between the two was like being hunted down by a group of bounty hunter lawyers vs meeting a canadian mountie while out camping.

Trademark issue - the bigger one.

[Carnage2K4]

5 hours ago, TrinityPrime said:

Is this a copywrite issue or a trademark issue? I was always under the impression the difference between the two was like being hunted down by a group of bounty hunter lawyers vs meeting a canadian mountie while out camping.

A copyright is more making something so similar that it would considered as a derivative of the original, the example given is; say someone draws a dog in a hat, and copyrights it, other people are free to draw dogs in hats, but if the lines and composition of the other dogs is so similar or clearly derivative of the original then that is a copyright infringement, it's normally applied to an art asset of some sort.

Trademark is like a company Logo, something that defines the company (and game in this case) being used elsewhere without consent or acknowledgement for profit that is not a fair use (as in a review of the company etc).

This case is a primarily Trademark issue as the Lotus Symbol is used everywhere in Warframe, it's the image on every splash page and exists in front of the "warframe" name even at the top of this forum, and as this game is I assume paid for, that means the logo is being used out of the WF context for profit without acknowledgement.

I imagine the outcome will go as follows: WF issues cease and desist letter, it is followed, icon is changed, end of issue.

Edited March 19, 2018 by Carnage2K4

[Arniox]

If DE ask this company to stop using this icon, and this company just goes: ok sure, and removes it. Is that fine? Does that legally work out all good? 

[Sitchrea]

21 minutes ago, Arniox said:

If DE ask this company to stop using this icon, and this company just goes: ok sure, and removes it. Is that fine? Does that legally work out all good? 

Considering this game has also made money using that symbol... No, probably not that easy.

[jfhsanseiIII]

8 hours ago, Tellakey said:

This is kinda petty. So what if another game is using Warframe's symbol? The fact that it's illegal doesn't make it that bad. Technically all of those companies taking down youtubers for 'appropriating' their music/footage is legal but that's just greedy BS. Do you really want DE to go that road?

Yea. Right. I mean why make anything and say it’s yours.  Everybody should be able to profit off of your hard work.  

[Miser_able]

It's hard to tell in the grainy image, but look at the fire symbol 3 rows to the right of the lotus one. Is it just me, or does that look like a mirror version of our symbol for fire? 

For reference, 

[Blade_Wolf_16]

il y a 12 minutes, Miser_able a dit :

It's hard to tell in the grainy image, but look at the fire symbol 3 rows to the right of the lotus one. Is it just me, or does that look like a mirror version of our symbol for fire? 

For reference, 

I dont think so, tbh. The hole at the base isn't as big on the Council icon. 

Fire symbols are, well, quite frequent, so it's easy to think it's the same as there are thousands of slightly different ones.

[VirtualViolet]

It's a trademark, and yes, DE *must* defend the trademark in order to keep it (afaik). I doubt there would be a big legal case, though, if the developer of that game complies and removes the logo from the game.

This might be a good question for a YouTuber by the name of Leonard French. He's an actual copyright attorney and makes videos explaining various legal issues involving games and other pop culture.

[Netami]

Don't blow this thing out of proportion >_> It's kinda funny and that's about it. It's a fun game which hopefully won't get ruined by DE suing them... over a tiny icon which was a mistake at worst.

[(PSN)Atlantisrulez]

I think it's ironic that it's their experience boost symbol. Yup, got an exp boost from another, long-running and cool game's symbol without putting the experience in to make it themselves.