I was a (small) part of an email exchange on the topic of how Facebook policies affect your corporate logo should you decide to put it on that site. It was Robin Browne who had kicked off the discussion and I deferred to Andy Kaplan-Myrth of the University of Ottawa Law and Technology program for an explanation.

In short, by putting your corporate logo on Facebook you do not surrender ownership of the logo. However, according to their terms of use, you implicitly grant a blanket license to Facebook for whichever use Facebook desires. This could include selling a license to your competitors to use your logo for whichever use they desire.

A lot of this is interpretation of the terms of use and how it relates to copyright versus trademark laws. There’s also a trade-off to consider where the benefit of exposure could outweigh the risks of licensing of your corporate logo.

You can read Andy’s complete explanation in his post, Using Logos on Facebook.

The Canadian Podcasting Legal Guide was unveiled by Andy Kaplan-Myrth and Kathi Simmons at Podcasters Across Borders and is now available for download (in html and pdf) from the Creative Commons Canada site.

The presentation by Andy and Kathi will be available for download on the Canadian Podcast Buffet in the next two weeks.