JS2003 is correct. This is a trademark issue, not a copyright issue.

You would be infringing Ford's trademarks. Unlike the tattoo on the buttcheek, your use would be in connection with the sale of goods or services. As such, you would be liable.

As an intellectual property attorney, my advice to a client on this issue would be simple: Don't do it.

 

So, Tim Skelton.. you're an intellectual property attorney? Sorry to take the thread off track, but does that mean that "ZX4" which is a trim level on the Focus is also trademarked? I saw some company on TV selling an electric shaver and they named it the ZX4... is this illegal?

 

I dunno about logos or T-shirts, but I do know that I've been lectured by powers higher than me several times for posting TSB information word for word here...

Someone said Big Brother is watching. And they are.

 

So, I'm legal?

I can wear a thong to the beach and persue a career as a professional athlete?

This is good news for me because I can't golf worth a damn.

 

Posting a document verbatim could be copyright infringement; posting a summary wouldn't be. If someone created/owned documents that were being posted word for word by someone else, they could claim copyright infringement.

Trademark, I think, is something that has to be registered in order to claim ownership; copyright on the expression of ideas (e.g., the words expressing a thought) is owned from the moment of creation. You don't have to regisgter anything to get copyright (you can, but you don't have to) and you don't have to use the little C-in-a-circle symbol. I don't know if a registered trademark must display the TM symbol, but I do think a trademark has be registered before you can claim it.