In this day and age of abundant stock illustration for a nickel and having to compete with the $25 all you can eat logo design its all the more reason to be original. We have been awarded a great opportunity to develop 19 original logos/mascots. The reason for the request was that so many of the exiting logos were jacked directly from already existing logos and mascots. I have personally seen how this can happen. It all starts with helping out the kids school with a poster or A+ tee shirts (not for profit of course) and the next thing you know your modified vector art is in all its glory on the backlit monument sign in front of the kids school. The following article is a little more of a blatant rip off which a lot of designs and illustrators have to defend against and its not always the naive little guy doing the stealing.
What every designer needs to know about copyright law. – By James Cartwright