removal of seal the university seal was removed from this page per the university's official logo guidelines available at the seal is limited to items for commencement and those events sponsored by the board of trustees the chancellor or the deans and requires special permission from the university for use please be advised that the university has in the past pursued legal action when images and symbols are used without permission for which permission is specifically required this unsigned comment was added by talk contribs first i must kindly ask the user who posted this topic to please sign their username to their post in future secondly the use of washington university s seal in a wikipedia article is perfectly fair and legal just as wikipedia is allowed to use the logo s of mcdonalds apple and other us corporations that have also copyrighted their logo s a wikipedia article is still allowed to use college and university seals under the us copyright law s fair use'' policy wikipedia does not need permission to use washington university s seal so long as it meets the fair use qualifications every other university's seal including harvard's northwestern's and yale's is used in wikipedia articles that reference them even though they have similar policies about university seal use this because wikipedia is a non profit foundation allowed to use copyrighted logo s under the fair use policy i will be reinstating washington university's seal to meet the format consistent with other us college and university articles please be advised that legal counsel has been notified the university makes available the official university logo for these purposes use of the university seal is strictly prohibited and protected the use of the washington university seal even if it is copyrighted is allowed on wikipedia through the fair use policy notify legal consul if you must but the fair use policy has already been affirmed in court see kelly v arriba soft corporation i have also examined user 's discussion page and found that the user has flouted wikipedia rules and regulations in the past taking this into account i will continue to reinstate the university seal until the user presents a concrete reason why i should not placing the university seal on the wikipedia article that it concerns is consistent with wikipedia format and encouraged by the wikipedia community the same policy which governs the use of washington university logo also governs the washington university seal and i question to be a spokesperson for the university and decide that it is acceptable to use the logo although i was unable to access the link that provided in an attempt to present their case my understanding is that the policy applies to the use of the seal by members of the university community and not an outside non for profit foundation once again there has been no violation of the fair use policy concerning the washington university seal brought to my attention and atherefore i continue reverting to the original article until one such violation is identified user please post washington university seal policy in full on the talk page so users can examine it and compare it to other university policies as i said before i was unable to access the link you still not be removing the seal please stop i do agree with that fair use doctrine permits use of the seal in such a not for profit context as a sidenote wikipedia's image tag for logos which asserts the right to use such images in this context surely wasn't invented out of thin air there's presumably some legal research knowledge behind that tag's invention i think we might do well soliciting the advice of an administrator who has specific experience in copyright fair use issues if this dispute continues surely this sort of issue must pop up on wikipedia all the time the official seal of the university is a protected trademark and may not be used without the written permission of the university the university has not