When does a logo become part of Canada?

January 23, 2007 at 11:40 am
When does a logo become part of Canada?

Uh oh, something tells me the folks who sell this lovely t-shirt (scroll down to see the back of it) might be getting a friendly letter from CBC’s lawyers soon.
Then again, this gay nightclub has been operating in Australia without having to pay royalties to the Mother Corp. Five per cent of every gin and tonic sold?
But seriously, I wonder at what point does the CBC’s logo kind of morph into being part of the Canadiana public domain?

Once we stop selling retro-logoed merchandise, I suppose — and, truth be told, that multi-colour CBC logo from the 70s is today one of the most popular icons the CBC shop sells.

What do you think?

Should CBC continue to bolster its government funding by selling (and thus legally protecting) the CBC logo?

Or should the CBC logo be part of the public domain (which would require either more government funding or cuts to programming).

And this is a plebiscite, people, not a binding referendum.

Hat tip to Iain and Gillian

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12 Responses to “When does a logo become part of Canada?”

John says:

How’s this for brand recognition… My 3 year old nephew, who lives by Lunar Jim every morning, saw my CBC Radio 3 hat I have with the CBC exploding pizza logo button I have on it, and remarked, “Hey, you got a CBC hat”. When we asked him how he knew, he pointed out the logo on the hat. The same one that you see on the bottom part of the screen when Lunar Jim is on.

Dwight Williams says:

I’m NOT a lawyer.

But.

If I said that I suspect CBC already has access to legal talent and resources that will help them have it both ways on this issue without wreaking financial havoc on its operations, would anyone here consider me clinically insane(or at least, ill-informed)?

That said, I think the brand recognition’s pretty solid by now after 30 years or more in Canada.

Jason Paris says:

I say let the people have the logo, but just demand a disclaimer and a link to the “real” CBC website.

Steve Baxley says:

Lets face it, the CBC logo is the second MOST RECONIZEABLE canadian symbol…the first being Don Cherry!

Wade Vroom says:

If you look at the logo on the shirt, it seems to be a square version of the rounded CBC logo. It is about as close as you can get to the actual CBC logo, but it isn’t exactly exact. They might have a way out of it? I’m not a lawyer either.

iamiam says:

I agree with Dwight. That there is so close that no-one would try to logically see anything but an exploding “C”. It’s surrounded by Canadian emblems. What’s more Canadian than the station that brought you Lorne Green, Big Al Maitland, Wayne & Shuster, and the puppet talents of Rod Conibear?

Besides, they have a link on that product page to someone’s reaction to that shirt about the superiority of the CBC, fer crap’s sake.

What the dance club is doing with the new-fangled late-90s 3D exploding crystal pizza I’ve no idea.

What could “C” stand for…? Cola? Chips? Chickens?

fvincent says:

I actually kind of assumed the logo was already public domain since the CBC is a crown corporation but that’s just my own lack of understanding of the situation. However, I’m not sure the choice presented here is an either/or situation. If the logo was to become public domain, it’s quite unclear how affected the CBC store would be (unless the CBC somehow generates logo revenue I’m unaware of). It seems unlikely that people visit the CBC store wishing that they could buy their CBC merch elsewhere at knock-off prices. My only real concern would be people abusing the logo for their own publicity needs. I can imagine bands or plays (or whoever) misappropriating the logo for their own advertising/legitimizing uses.