British Army Logo

From: DGDC DIPR-CTML(Shea, Christopher)
Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2010 11:53 AM
To: info@britisharmykillings.org.uk
Subject: Use of the British Army Badge

Dear Sir,

I am writing to you on behalf of the British Army. I should be grateful if you would remove the British Army’s badge from your website www.britisharmykillings.org.uk (that is, the badge comprising the Crown, a lion and two crossed swords).

The badge is protected by a number of forms of intellectual property right, including copyright and trade mark rights. Consequently it cannot be used without the Army’s permission, which in this case has not been granted. Please would you confirm how long it will take you to do this.

Yours faithfully,

Chris Shea

Christopher Shea
Trade Mark Attorney.
MOD Copyright, Trade Marks and Licensing
Defence Intellectual Property Rights
MOD Abbey Wood South #2218
Bristol BS34 8JH
Tel: 030 6793 2861
Fax: 0117 913 2929

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From: British Army Killings
Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2010 5:14 PM
To: DGDC DIPR-CTML(Shea, Christopher)
Subject: Re: Use of the British Army Badge

Dear Mr Shea, I’m encouraged that the British Army has taken an interest in our website, and hope that the content of the website has aroused as much interest with your superiors, as our use of the British Army logo has.

I’ll be quite willing to respect the British Army’s entitlement to the use of the British Army logo, providing the British Army undertakes to respect national and international law in regards to the treatment of prisoners of war, and the unlawful killing of unarmed civilians.

I would appreciate if you could relay this offer to your superiors in Whitehall, and look forward to your reply.

Regards

Karl Winn

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Dear Mr Shea, following my last email on the 28th my designer has informed me that he did believed we had permission to use the British Army emblem as the usage complied with the MoD’s own copyright terms when he downloaded the image. Having checked this myself the download of the emblem ID:45147540 from the MOD Defence Image Database grants permission to use the image as follows:-

“This material may be reproduced for the purposes of non-commercial research or private study and for the purposes of reporting current events only.”

http://www.defenceimagedatabase.mod.uk/fotoweb/Copyright.fwx

Can you clarify why the permission that is granted on the MoD’s own website, and which our usage of the image is clearly in accordance, does not apply to us.

Please forgive the question but I’m not a lawyer or copyright expert, and I’d hate to interpret this as yet another example where the MoD was being inconsistent in it’s public statements and what happens in practice.

Regards

Karl Winn