Trademark
A trademark is a word, symbol, or combination that identifies the source of a product and distinguishes it from other products. A trademark is specifically acquired by a company or other entity through a legal process and once acquired gives the owner exclusive rights to the trademark usage with respect to those goods.
Trademark infringement is improper or unauthorized use of a trademark in a way that is likely to cause confusion as to the source of that product. YouTube policies prohibit videos and channels that infringe trademarks. If you upload content on YouTube that uses another party’s trademarks in a way that is likely to cause confusion, your videos can be blocked and your channel suspended.
If you are a trademark owner and you believe your trademark is being infringed, please note that YouTube is not in a position to mediate trademark disputes between users and trademark owners. As a result, we strongly encourage trademark owners to resolve their disputes directly with the user who posted the content in question. Contacting the uploader may resolve things more quickly in a way that is more beneficial to you, the uploader, and the YouTube community. Trademark owners can contact the user through YouTube’s private messaging feature or you can submit a complaint directly to the uploader through our Trademark complaint form.
If you are unable to reach a resolution with the account holder in question, please submit a trademark complaint through our Trademark complaint form.
YouTube is willing to perform a limited investigation of reasonable complaints and will remove or restrict content in cases of clear infringement. To further encourage resolution between users, YouTube forwards each trademark complaint to the uploader before taking any action, giving the uploader the opportunity to address any potential Trademark issues.
We will also accept free-form trademark complaints, submitted by email, fax and mail.
If your complaint relates to the sale or promotion of counterfeit goods, please file a Counterfeit complaint.
If your complaint relates to a protected work, such as a song, movie, or book, please file a Copyright complaint.
Counterfeit
Google prohibits the sale or promotion of counterfeit goods in its products, including YouTube. Counterfeit goods contain a trademark or logo that is identical to or substantially indistinguishable from the trademark of another. They mimic the brand features of the product in an attempt to pass themselves off as a genuine product of the brand owner, or they promote the goods as faux, replicas, imitations, or clones of the original product.
Channels that promote or sell counterfeit goods may be terminated.
If you believe a video or channel is selling or promoting counterfeit goods, you may file a Counterfeit complaint through our online form.
We must receive your complaint in this format in order to investigate. Our team will investigate your complaint and remove the content if it violates Google counterfeit policy.
We will also accept free-form counterfeit complaints, submitted by email, fax and mail.
Please note, abuse of our legal forms may result in termination of your YouTube account.
Defamation
Defamation laws vary from country to country but usually concern content that damages the reputation of another person or business. Although the definition of defamation varies around the world, in general, defamation is any untrue statement that is harmful to someone’s reputation or causes someone to be shunned or avoided.
We take into account local legal considerations in our defamation blocking process, and in some cases, we require a court order. For us to be able to process a defamation blocking request, the claim needs to be specific and strongly supported. For example, it needs to explain why you believe the statements are untrue and how it damages your reputation.
In some cases, uploaders willingly remove harmful content. Because obtaining a court order can be costly and time-consuming, we encourage users to contact the uploaders of the content in question directly.
If you are unable to reach the uploader, consider whether the video meets the standards for removal under our privacy or harassment policy.
If you’ve attempted to contact the uploader, and you believe a defamation claim is more appropriate than a privacy or harassment complaint, please fill out the webform.
We will also accept free-form defamation complaints, submitted by email, fax and mail.
Please note, abuse of our legal forms may result in termination of your YouTube account.
Other Legal Issues
Legal Complaints and Court Orders
If you feel that certain content on the site violates your rights or applicable laws, you may submit a legal complaint under our trademark, defamation, counterfeit, or other legal complaint flows. If you have a court order against an uploader, you may attach a copy of the court order in response to the autoreply you receive, after you file the applicable legal complaint. Each court order is examined and evaluated on a set of regional and global criteria.
Please note that you also have other resources to bring content to our attention. For example, if you feel the content does not comply with our community guidelines, please flag it. We also encourage you to consider whether the video meets the standards for removal under our privacy or harassment policy before filing a legal complaint.
Circumvention of Technological Measures
When we say circumvention of technological measures, we’re referring to tools that allow users to evade a software’s licensing protocol. This can mean serial numbers, keygens, passwords, and other methods to hack software or games.
What is the difference between CTM and copyright?
CTM is a tool that will give users the means to access software. Copyright is concerned with the depiction of the software or the means to acquire it. If the software’s interface is in the video, or there is a download link to the software in the video or video description, you may wish to file a copyright takedown notice.
If you believe you have a valid CTM claim, please fill out our webform.
Captioning
If you’ve received a notice informing you that your video is in violation of the Communications and Video Accessibility Act, you may have uploaded content that was originally shown on TV with captions. The CVAA requires that all pre-recorded video programming that is captioned on TV also be captioned on the internet. If you believe you’re exempt from the CVAA requirement, you may select a certification for your content.
If you believe a video is required by the Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) to contain captions, but the uploader has not made captions available, please submit a request via webform.
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