Avis requests that blogger remove company’s logo from site

Avis has requested that Eric Turkewitz–a lawyer who operates a blog and recently wrote a post on a court case that affected rental car companies–to remove Avis’s official logo which he used as a way to illustrate the article in question. Fred Grumman, who works as a general legal counsel for Avis, noted that while the car hire company respects Turkewitz’s right to express his opinions on his blog, he is not actually allowed to use the Avis corporate logo in this case, without requesting permission in advance. As such, Grumman ordered that the blogger remove the logo from his site immediately.

Although many bloggers likely use the trademarks and logos of companies that they are writing about without asking for prior permission, what made this situation stand out is that Turkewitz is a fairly prominent personal injury lawyer and the court case that he was writing on was about the relatively limited legal responsibility that car rental companies have when it comes to some accidents that clients suffer while renting, due to negligence.  Turkewitz also displays Hertz’s logo when illustrating his article.

Whether Turkewitz is, indeed, required by law to remove the logo and whether he actually committed copyright infringement is not clear, according to most legal experts. In the US, the “fair use” law concerning copyright generally permits authors, editors and publishers to use a company’s logo or trademark as an illustration when reporting on the news, and in a few other situations as well. In the UK, however, the equivalent “fair dealing” law is more stringent and an author may be permitted to use a company’s logo only if this illustration is necessary in accurately reporting the news.