1

I'm in a hurry to put together a presentation, where Nvidia CUDA (a technology for general computing on graphic processing units made by Nvidia Corporation) is used. My purpose is just to put the logo along others as a way to illustrated (and not write) what technologies are used in the project.

The Nvidia brand guidelines state that the logo cannot be used without the explicit permission of corporation. However it does go on to talk about endorsement (from Nvidia) and partner programs etc., which is not really the case here. In addition I am unable to find any contact information, where I can send a request for approval for using their logo.

Am I still allowed to use the logo in my PowerPoint presentation or not?

Improve this question

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
1

There is the legal concept of "fair-use" which I believe is almost certainly applicable here.

This article discusses fair-use in a reasonable amount of detail and you should be able to make a determination of whether or not your use falls into this category:

Fair-Use Article

To summarize the most relevant part or the article, there are 4 factors that are used to determine fair-use:

  1. the purpose and character of your use
  2. the nature of the copyrighted work
  3. the amount and substantiality of the portion taken, and
  4. the effect of the use upon the potential market.

So looking at these and see if you fall into the guidelines for fair-use. Of course there can be disagreements between you and NVIDIA over what constitutes fair-use but that's something that is up to them to pursue.

Improve this answer
1
  • 2
    Fair Use is for copyright. This is a use of a trademark, so I don't think it applies.
    – nick012000
    Aug 22, 2022 at 20:58
1

Trademark law prohibits the use of the mark in a manner that mislead the people seeing it to think that your product or work is endorsed by or affiliated with the trademark owner.

Nominative use of a trademark, which is the use of a mark that does not imply affiliation or endorsement by the trademark owner, is permitted by trademark law.

As long as you don't write power point slides in a way that implies that you are sponsored by or authorized by the trademark owner, you are O.K.

Improve this answer
3
  • This is a textbook nominative use situation, but that doesn't necessarily mean the logo would be covered under nominative use. Courts have at least sometimes noted that using a trademarked term was reasonable but using a trademarked logo might not have been, since that's less likely to be "reasonably necessary."
    – cpast
    Aug 23, 2022 at 1:15
  • I add source to all the images I am using in my slides. For this in particular I will add a detailed description. Something like "The used logo is property of Nvidia Corporation. It is used under the terms of Fair Use and is only to demonstrate technology employed by the project at hand. By no means it should be interpreted as any kind of endorsement by the rightful owner."
    – rbaleksandar
    Aug 23, 2022 at 7:59
  • @cpast FWIW, while "reasonable necessary" is the black letter rule in some cases, my impression is that almost nobody loses nominative use cases for failing to satisfy that element.
    – ohwilleke
    Aug 23, 2022 at 18:16

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .