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Heraldry Registrations in the US

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Sir Wolf:
ya for the KoM i use my family crest so i couldn't do anything other than that.

Sir Siegfried:
In European countries, heraldry is highly regulated, as is its inheritance. Other than a few notable exceptions (Scotland being one), a coat of arms does not belong to a family, but instead to an individual. The rights to those arms usually pass to the first born son, who can use them undifferenced after the passing of his father, the original armiger.

In America, however, there are no official rules or laws governing the creation, use, or proliferation of heraldry. Basically, it's a free-for-all, and whether or not you register your arms with any of those private establishments in the original post, there's really nothing that you can do to prevent someone else from using your arms outside of copyrighting the specific image itself.

This lack of regulation, along with the general layman's knowledge that Coats of Arms were passed down, has given rise to the incorrect notion of "my family's coat of arms" and such like. Most of these so-called family crests tend to just be the individual arms of a certain person in their ancestry (and sometimes, someone of no relation who happens to share a surname), and laws in the country of origin may not give you any claim to them whatsoever. In scotland, there are blazons that are strictly linked to a surname, rather than an individual. However, they are still only used undifferenced by the head of the clan, while all descendants use a complex system of marks to show their relation to that person. And I believe in Scotland one must still be granted the use of arms by an official royal source before use, even if a relationship can be proven.

That being said, it's the US, so do whatever you want!

Sir Edward:
Thank you, Sir Siegfried, that is some good clarification that this thread needed. Folks don't always realize how heraldry is regulated in European nations, or historically.

Here in the US, registration with these services really only serves the purpose of trying to avoid accidental use of each others' arms, but if someone sets out to do it intentionally, there's nothing you can do outside of copyright or trademark. And that has its own can of worms.

For trademarks, the rules are a bit circuitous, since registration of it often involves explaining the business use of that mark. For copyright, registration is optional, though the level of legal protection is different for a registered copyright versus an unregistered one. For unregistered, you'd have to demonstrate to the court some form of actual damages, in order to make someone stop using your image.

However, an unregistered copyright is extremely easy to do, as there is no paperwork or fees. All it takes is a copyright notice (example:  Copyright 2012, Sir Edward, All Rights Reserved.) However, this copyright notice is legally not required, but significantly strengthens your case. Under copyright law, your work is copyrighted the moment you create it.

Sir Siegfried:
Yeah, I suppose that if your intent was to keep other conscientious people from creating the same coat of arms as you, any of those registration sites would serve that purpose. It stands to reason that someone who goes to the trouble of attempting to register their arms (or better yet, searched the registry prior to creating one, just in case) would be respectful to a person who already used the same site to register the arms.

If that is the intent, I would probably just go with whichever registry is free/easiest to use/most popular, because that's probably where the most traffic is heading through, anyway. None of them are any more official than the others.

Jeffrey Boyd Garrison:
Sorry to necro, but this is the most appropriate thread I think.

US HERALDIC REGISTRY is active again, so Americans who have assumed arms and wish to register them for FREE should go there now and you will finally get a response (Phil Blanton has taken over management of the site and is handling it quite well).
Website: http://usheraldicregistry.com/

AMORIAL REGISTER - INTERNATIONAL REGISTER OF ARMS costs I believe 100 british pounds to register assumed arms for Americans BUT, you get your arms entered (with art you provide for the emblazonment unless you wanna buy the additional service of having their resident artist Ljubodrag Grucic do the honor) into their armorial publication (they are currently filling up slots for Vol. III.
website: http://armorial-register.com/

Here are examples of my dad's registry entries for his arms:
http://armorial-register.com/arms-us/garrison-bs-arms.html
http://usheraldicregistry.com/index.php?n=Registrations.20141214B

You can order "certificates" from both organizations as well, the USHR's is about $20 USD right now I believe.

Hope this info is helpful for the subject.

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