brand-legal-and-licensing

Brand Legal & Licensing

The brand-creation engagement runs straight into IP law: who owns an AI-generated logo, whether it can be trademarked, whether a font can legally ship on the client's site, and whether a resold asset is indemnified. This skill states the facts and routes every client-facing claim to counsel — it never renders a legal conclusion.

NOT LEGAL ADVICE. This skill and this plugin state general facts as of a retrieval date; they do not advise on a specific matter. Every client-facing IP / copyright / trademark / registrability / font-license / indemnity claim MUST be routed to ravenclaude-core:security-reviewer (and, through it, qualified counsel) before the brand book or a proposal ASSERTS it. Legal facts carry a retrieval date + [verify-at-use]; the primary sources live in ../../knowledge/legal-and-licensing-2026.md.

The four facts (state them plainly)

1. AI-logo copyright ≠ trademark

• A purely AI-generated logo is not copyrightable in the US — no human authorship; mere prompting is insufficient (USCO guidance, 29 Jan 2025). [verify-at-use]
• BUT it can be trademarked — USPTO evaluates the source-identifier function, not authorship.
• Safeguard: a documented substantial human modification/arrangement can restore copyrightability of the human-authored contribution. This is why the pipeline has a documented-human-authorship gate — log it in ../../templates/curation-and-authorship-log.md.
• Recommend a TM clearance search (USPTO) before promising trademarkability, and an IP-assignment clause transferring rights to the client. Both are counsel's to execute — route to security-reviewer.

2. Font web-license ≠ desktop license

• OFL / Apache (most Google Fonts): self-host + commercial use OK, no attribution required → preferred.
• Adobe Fonts: forbids self-hosting — embed-code only; the font dies if the Creative Cloud sub lapses.
• Monotype webfonts: pageview-metered — cost scales with traffic.
• Desktop license ≠ web license — buying a desktop font does not license it for a website.
• Gate: a non-self-hostable font is blocked from the token export; record every family's class in ../../templates/font-license-tracker.md.

3. Provider indemnity (for generated imagery)

• Adobe Firefly is the default for client-facing imagery specifically because it offers IP indemnification — a real risk-reducer when reselling deliverables. [verify-at-use]
• Some providers (e.g. Grok/xAI) offer no IP indemnity.
• But this plugin does NOT decide the provider — it sets indemnity_required in the generation brief and generative-web-media's license gate makes the per-asset call. Logos/wordmarks are the curated vector, not a Firefly regen; Firefly-default applies to fill/photographic imagery.

4. WCAG is a legal-adjacent constraint

Accessibility (WCAG 2.x AA) is increasingly a legal exposure (ADA/EAA). The color system carries validated contrast pairs — see logo-and-visual-system-direction and check-brand-a11y.py. Flag accessibility-law questions to counsel via security-reviewer.

The routing rule (non-negotiable)

Any of the following in a client-facing artifact → route to security-reviewer first:

• "You own the copyright / the IP transfers to you"
• "This is trademarkable" / "This name is available"
• "This font is licensed for your site"
• "This asset is indemnified"

State the underlying fact with its source + date; let counsel convert it into a claim about the specific matter.

Anti-patterns

• Asserting trademarkability, copyright ownership, or IP transfer without a counsel route.
• Promising a name/mark is "available" without a clearance search.
• Shipping a brand book that reads as legal advice (conclusions, not facts).
• Letting a non-self-hostable font into the token export.
• Restating generative-web-media's per-asset indemnity decision as this plugin's own.

See also

• Knowledge (primary sources, dated): ../../knowledge/legal-and-licensing-2026.md
• Template: ../../templates/font-license-tracker.md, ../../templates/curation-and-authorship-log.md
• Best-practices: ../../best-practices/ai-logo-copyright-is-not-trademark-document-human-authorship.md, ../../best-practices/font-web-license-is-not-desktop-license.md
• Escalation: ravenclaude-core:security-reviewer (mandatory for every client-facing IP claim)