County: Design firm owns seal copyright
An image county officials wanted removed from a website is the copyright of the architectural firm that designed the Garland County Detention Center, according to the county’s response to the website operator’s Freedom of Information Act request.
The FOIA inquiry submitted by Clay Herrmann, the owner of a local real estate firm and an independent candidate for county judge last November, sought documentation that certified the image as the county’s official seal, the description justices of the peace used last month
when they directed Herrmann to remove the image from his website.
The county said the image is licensed by Cromwell Architect Engineers Inc., the Little- Rock firm awarded the $ 2.3 million detention center design contract. A letter from Cromwell’s COO that is included in the FOIA response indicates the county had asked Cromwell to create the image to use as a seal for official contract documents.
It states Cromwell retains all copyrights to the seal and has granted the county a nonexclusive license to use it only for the purposes of the detention center project. Herrmann has since removed the image from his site, which county officials said the public could mistake for the official county website: http:// www.garlandcounty.org.
“Legally, it’s not his to use,” said Davis, noting that the county doesn’t use an official seal. “It was for the purpose of the jail plans. That’s what Cromwell used it for. They have the rights to it. If we chose to use it as a seal, I’m sure they’d grant us the right to.”
County Attorney Ralph Ohm sent Herrmann a letter last month that reiterated the directive JPs issued during the July 28 Public Health, Welfare and Safety Committee meeting Herrmann attended.
The letter, posted on Herrmann’s website, instructed him to “not create a Web page that has an appearance of an official Garland County Web page. Consequently, you should remove the term ‘ Garland County’ from your identification concerning your Web page.”
Davis said Herrmann needs to distinguish his website from the county’s.
“I don’t care what he puts on his website, so long as it’s clearly marked on top that this is a Clay Herrmann website,” he said. “We’ve had this discussion. It’s not clearly defined the way it’s laid out, especially using the so- called seal.”
Herrmann couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday but told JPs last month that a link directing visitors to the county website should indicate to the public that his site isn’t official.
The county’s response to the FOIA request indicated it had no record of an official county seal’s existence, and that no action has been taken to designate one.
Davis said in the past the county had used a hand stamp with “Garland County” imprinted across the Seal of Arkansas, and that it had considered using it as the seal for the detention center design plans.
“It was used in years past,” he said. “I don’t know what for, but it was probably used for something. We don’t use a seal. Unless the quorum court wants one, it’s not high on my priority list.”
Cromwell COO Daniel K. Fowler didn’t return calls or emails seeking comment.