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Ask HN: Is there a company logo web service?

6 points by cwisecarver ↗ HN
Is there a web service that can look up a company logo by SEC CIK number, ticker symbol or some other unique ID?

ex: GET http://log.os/{{CIK_NUM}}/100/100 returns a 100x100 px logo for company matching {{CIK_NUM}}

If not, am I the only one interested in having one?

5 comments

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latch
INAL and I don't want to piss on a good idea, but the first thing that came to my mind is that company logos are trademarked and that you might be opening an unexpected ball of hurt for yourself.
cwisecarver
Yeah, I think the only way it could work is if it was approved by the trademark owners. I thought about interns emailing/calling for approval, form letters, etc. then I just thought I'd ask google and the community if there was an existing one.

Funny thing about trademarks, I can go take a photograph of the Pepsi logo and then if they use it without permission I can sue them!

maxbrown
IANAL either, but...

While a company's logo may be under trademark or simply copyright protection, you still have a legal "Fair Use" right to use the logo for the purpose of identifying or describing the company.

Most often, this is what logos are used for on a site. For example, "As Seen On... TC, CNN, blah blah blah". They obviously cannot be used to mislead someone into thinking the company is tied to or endorses your site.

Here's an article about it: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/fair-use-logos-2152.html

esw
Yeah, I think it's a fine line. For example, the Washington Post wrote an article about my last company. We included a link to the article on our media page (where we listed every mention in the press), along with a tiny WaPo logo. Several months later I received an email requesting some unreasonable sum (~$4k, IIRC) to continue use of the logo.