Hi does anyone happen to know if it's safe to put that wonderful VIC-20 logo on your own games cover artwork and selling the game commercially? And I use the term commercially loosely because it would be pretty lame if they'd sue for selling ten copies on C-cassette for five euros each.
Still I read on lemon64 that you can't use the commodore logo without risk, and I also read on AtariAge that apparently the current Atari chases infringers on a really ridiculous level (I think eJagfest can't use Ataris logo anymore and stuff like that). I also read that some Nintendo and Sega "homebrews" would get away by stating on the boxart that "This product is not sponsored or endorsed by Sega/Nintendo".
According the US Patent and Trademark Office the "VIC-20" wordmark is "dead".
[edit]
The link to search results expires, so I guess it isn't linkable. This is the link to the search page: http://tess2.uspto.gov/
Click on "Basic Word Mark Search " then enter "vic-20" and it will list all info about that trademark.
I was going to attach a screenshot of the search results but the attachments function for the forums isn't working today...
Thanks so much guys! Yay! It appears indeed to be dead/cancelled. That's good news for that authentic feeling when someone's creating new games / cover art. I also took a screenshot but I can't see an attachment option anywhere.
Does anyone know how these things work? Is the trademark "protected" for the community as it has ended, or can anyone grab it now? Is it horribly expensive or should the trademark somehow be bought by the VIC-20 community for the VIC-20 community to be used on new games and such, to protect it from some random/greedy company grabbing it? Or perhaps VIC-20 is too niche compared to the c64 so it wouldn't make any sense taking such steps?
Has there been many physical releases over the last years? I saw Psytronik had the spider game, and then I know of Cheese & Onion and Pentagorat. Also I saw in one thread Jef-20 was selling Haunt/It Came from the Grave on tape. I know it's quite a small detail, but It steals a little bit from the feeling that people for example are not able to put the Commodore or Atari logo etc. on their homebrew game cover art. Also that VIC-20 logo is so much fun.<3
Konstantinos Konstantinides, EE, Patent Agent
Answered Dec 5, 2014 · Author has 26.8k answers and 20.2m answer views
It depends, and you should consult an attorney for a proper answer. The lapsed trademark may still be used in commerce, in which case you will not be allowed to use it or register it. (It is not a requirement that a trademark must be registered to be used, but registration does offer some legal advantages). The logo itself may also be protected under copyright law.
Ooh, fascinating site! [non functioning link removed]
Commodore trademark "Dead"...
Last edited by Mike on Thu Mar 07, 2019 1:59 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason:(mod: as has been established in earlier posts in this thread, the link to search results expires, thus it's not linkable)
There could be an issue that the VIC 20 logo has the Commodore logo in the middle of of, and that logo is still trademarked. To be safe, you could photoshop out the chicken beak and make it just a rainbow colored letter C.
I also took a screenshot but I can't see an attachment option anywhere.
