Nylon, escalator and aspirin were once copyrighted trademarks. Game leviathan Parker Brothers (now part of Hasbro) not long ago had to fight to retain proprietary rights to Monopoly; failure to defend their trademark against imitators over the years weakened their claim. If they had lost, anyone could legally run off and sell copies of the game.

If you're a writer and subscribe to Writer's Digest, you'll see ads from companies like Xerox and J&J asking writers not to use their trademarks generically. Sometimes they have to sue or risk having something they've spent years building up cast into public domain (J&J's biggest headache is the generic use of "Band-Aid").

The Re...

Nylon, escalator and aspirin were once copyrighted trademarks. Game leviathan Parker Brothers (now part of Hasbro) not long ago had to fight to retain proprietary rights to Monopoly; failure to defend their trademark against imitators over the years weakened their claim. If they had lost, anyone could legally run off and sell copies of the game.

If you're a writer and subscribe to Writer's Digest, you'll see ads from companies like Xerox and J&J asking writers not to use their trademarks generically. Sometimes they have to sue or risk having something they've spent years building up cast into public domain (J&J's biggest headache is the generic use of "Band-Aid").

The Red Cross does have the right to use that symbol as a logo and for promotional use, but, as you realized, they cannot use it for commercial purposes.