Client Logos on Your Website Without Permission

A row of famous names

A manufacturer's Clients page shows the logos of its best-known customers in a neat grid: a national retailer, a bank, an airline, a car brand. It is the page the sales staff like most.

Nobody asked any of those customers. The logos were copied from their websites when the page was built, and some are two versions out of date.

Then a customer's marketing department writes to ask that its logo come down, or a prospect mentions the page to that customer and hears a surprised reply.

A logo is a trademark

A logo identifies its owner's business, and the owner controls how it is used. Large companies publish rules for their logos and expect anyone using them to have permission.

Showing another company's logo to promote your own services, without permission, can raise trademark questions and can conflict with the contract you have with that customer.

This is general information about trademarks and contracts, not legal advice about your own customers or agreements.

What a logo suggests

Visitors read a logo as a statement by its owner. A name in a list says you did work for them; a logo in their colours suggests they vouch for you.

If the work was small, long ago or ended badly, that impression is not accurate. Canada's rules on misleading advertising consider the general impression a representation gives, not only its literal words.

A logo grid also invites a prospect to ask the customer directly, and the customer's answer may not match the page. That conversation is out of your hands.

Contracts that rule it out

Many agreements, especially with larger companies, contain terms that bear on this:

• Confidentiality clauses covering the work and sometimes the relationship itself.
• Publicity clauses forbidding any mention in advertising without written consent.
• Brand rules on where, how and at what size a logo may appear.
• Purchase order terms that apply even if nobody read them at the time.
• Agency arrangements, where the work was done for an agency's client who may not know your name.

The last is common in creative work. A studio hired by an advertising agency has the agency as its client, and showing the brand's logo claims a direct relationship that never existed.

Asking in writing

Write to your contact at the customer and say exactly what you want to show: the logo, the name only, a description of the project or a quotation, and where it will appear.

Your contact may need to ask their marketing or legal department, so allow time. A yes for the name may not cover the logo, and a yes for the website may not cover print.

Keep the reply on file with its date and any conditions, such as the logo version to use or a date after which permission ends. Store it where the next person to update the site will find it.

When the answer is no

A refusal still leaves plenty to say. Describe the customer by kind and size instead of name: a national grocery chain, a regional dairy, an international freight company.

List the industries you serve, and write case studies that explain the problem, the work and the approach without naming the customer. Detail about the work often says more than a logo could.

Quotations can carry a title and an industry rather than a name and company: an operations manager at a food manufacturer. Readers understand that some customers prefer discretion.

A worked example

A visual effects studio in Vancouver with about 30 artists works on television series, feature films and commercials, often hired through production companies and advertising agencies.

Its home page carried a strip of logos: studios, networks and the brands from its commercials. A producer pointed out that one series had not yet aired, and its contract barred any publicity before release.

A review found no written permission on file for any logo. Two of the brands had hired an advertising agency, which in turn hired the studio, and several logos were out of date.

The strip came down the same day. The studio wrote to each client, restored the logos it was allowed to use, and described the rest by type of project instead.

Credits for released work are now listed only where the contract allows, and a sheet records every permission, its terms and its end date. The office manager checks it each January.

Removing a logo when the work ends

Relationships end, and permission often ends with them. Remove a logo promptly when asked, and review the whole page once a year even when nobody asks.

Logos travel beyond the Clients page: into proposals, trade show displays, presentations and the about page. Search the site and your own documents for each customer's name.

Old PDFs on the site count too. A brochure from three years ago, still linked from a forgotten page, can carry a logo long after the work stopped.

Quotations follow the same rule

A quotation from a named person at a named customer needs that person's agreement, and often their employer's. Check the wording with them before it goes up.

When the person leaves that company, the quotation may no longer speak for it. Ask whether they want it changed or removed.

The counter-case

Some customers are glad to be named, especially local businesses that like being associated with a supplier they trust. For them, a quick email and a yes is the whole job.

Credits on released films and series are public record, and naming the work you did on them is often allowed, subject to the contract.

But a logo, or anything that suggests an endorsement, still needs the owner's agreement. Asking costs an email; taking a logo down after a complaint costs goodwill.

Permission on file for every logo

1. List every logo and name shown anywhere.
2. Check each contract for confidentiality and publicity terms.
3. Ask each customer in writing.
4. Record the answers with dates and conditions.
5. Describe the rest by kind and industry.
6. Remove logos promptly when relationships end.
7. Review the page once a year.

Step three turns a risk into something you can rely on. A logo shown with written permission is one the customer has agreed to stand behind, and a customer asked properly often says yes.

Thanking sponsors without a wall of logos deals with sponsors, a different case, since being shown is part of what they paid for.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.