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Ask HN: Is it legally safe to mention clients names?

by Nazzareno on 4/6/20, 12:50 PM with 5 comments

On my website I'd like to have a section "We worked with" that includes all the brands we had as a client.

Is it legally safe even without a specific authorization? Can I also use the brand logos?

If not, which are the risks in the US?

  • by duxup on 4/6/20, 4:23 PM

    For customers / clients the companies I worked for always asked.

    I only know of some picky folks who said no, it was probabbly best to find that out first.

    Amusingly for sales stuff that showed competitors products we of course didn't ask ;) I actually got some legal-ish messages via LinkedIn asking me to take down the competitor information... I suspect they contacted me as I'm the "front end" drone and they thought I'd respond quickly / be fooled or something (they didn't contact anyone else). It was sent by someone who was very much not a lawyer at the competing company.

    Told them to take a hike after consulting with legal ;)

  • by saluki on 4/6/20, 3:44 PM

    IANAL

    I list them, I don't currently have logos but I think it would be ok to show previous client's names and/or logos.

    Granted most probably do have a clause that it should only be by permission.

    Chances are they might come across it someday and ask you to remove it.

    I've only heard of this one time, one of my clients had a request by a company's legal to remove a logo on his site in a clients section, but they didn't ask to remove the company name in text just the logo.

    As long as it looks professional I think most companies would be ok with it.

  • by aynyc on 4/6/20, 1:29 PM

    I handle some tech vendor contracts for my company. In the contract, it explicitly states any mentions of my company, its logo, etc., must be approved by our legal.

  • by skoskie on 4/6/20, 4:22 PM

    My personal practice has always been to not directly mention the names of my current clients, except for government entities. You just never know what unforeseen effect it might have.

    However, I sometimes get outsourced to from ad agencies, and after the NDA, expires, I will add that work to my portfolio. And after a client has not been with me for two years I will add them to my portfolio.

    I will definitely use logos. That’s never been a problem.

  • by smarri on 4/6/20, 5:32 PM

    Just get permission, in writing.