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I'm working on a pixel art logo for a site I'm developing for a small company. It's about retro and iconic games such as flappy bird, pacman, etc.
Am I allowed to use such characters or are they protected by law and thus illegal to use inside my own logo?
As far as I know they are copyrighted.
The Pac-Man video game source and object code were registered with the U.S. Copyright Office by Commonwealth Toy and Novelty Company, Inc. and Bally Midway Manufacturing Company in 1982, as was, in a separate registration, all derivative works based on Pac-Man.
If you wish you can visit the Law.stackexchange for more info (or more questions):
https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/19544/would-fair-use-apply-to-the-usage-of-pac-man-within-a-qr-code
I am not a lawyer. This is not legal advice.
In general, anything associated with a specific product, service, game, app, (or whatever) will be copyrighted.
You can not use materials/images which you do not own the copyrighted for in any logo. This would include images from apps and games as well as stock images.
Your default position should be that images you see are copyrighted, most of them are. The only way to use such copyrighted materials is to get written permission from the copyright holder.
