On one fine Friday morning, we came across this Facebook page:

Looks legit enough to pass off as an official Singapore Armed Forces or MINDEF page, right?

Except when you scroll down, you see this:

With only 61 likes on that page, as opposed to the actual SAF Facebook page, which has a verified tick, and also a few more (specifically, in excess of 132,500) likes.

And two others, featuring legitimate-looking logos from the Navy and the Singapore Armed Forces.

"Army" Facebook page that leads to web store listings

Clicking the links leads to nondescript generic web store listings hosted by Teechip.com, a site hosted in Canada, for four mobile phone cases:

The listing features a range of phone sizes and types from both Apple and Samsung, which come with a variety of colours for their borders. All variations, however, are priced equally, at $19.95, before shipping and taxes.

There is no indication of the identity of the seller or manufacturer of the phone cases, although the cases are allegedly, according to the seller, "proudly printed in the United States".

We think it's highly unlikely these were sanctioned by MINDEF or the Police, though — if they were, this information would definitely be prominently displayed on the listings.

And going further, they're likely to be misusing these four logos without the respective organisations' permission.

But yet...

[related_story]

Not a crime to steal SAF logos for use

Copyright can be a tricky thing, but it gets even trickier when it comes to logos of public agencies.

Companies have been rapped on the knuckles for unauthorised use of SPRING Singapore's logo, for instance, to endorse or legitimise their products or businesses.

There are also statutes that govern and criminalise the use and misuse of the Singapore Coat of Arms and state flag, but the law is silent on logos of public agencies or government bodies.

But they do have copyright notices on their sites.

The Singapore Police Force, for instance, has this:

"Except as otherwise provided, the Contents of this Site shall not be reproduced, republished, uploaded, posted, transmitted or otherwise distributed in any way, without the prior permission of SPF. To use any parts of the Contents of this Site, the user must seek permission in writing, stating the Contents for use; intent of use; manner of use; time frame of use and identity of the user. SPF reserves the right to refuse permission without declaring reason(s); and/or if information submitted by user is deemed insufficient."

Apart from copyright, though, it is also against the law to carry the SPF logo anywhere without the Police Commissioner's express permission:

"A person (whether or not a police officer) who —

a) manufactures or sells any police uniform or police insignia otherwise than in accordance with a licence granted to the person by the Commissioner;

b) sells any police uniform or police insignia to a person who is neither a police officer nor otherwise authorised or permitted ... to possess or wear the police uniform or use the police insignia; or

c) gives or furnishes, whether or not for a consideration, any police uniform or police insignia to a person who is neither a police officer nor otherwise authorised or permitted... to possess or wear the police uniform or use the police insignia,

shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years or to both."

While MINDEF has this:

"DMC (the Defence Media Centre) maintains this web-site for the information and education of users. As such, users may only download, reproduce or use materials displayed on this site for strictly non-commercial and personal purposes, and users are strictly prohibited from modifying, distributing, re-posting, "framing" or using any materials, including but not limited to text, images, photographs, audio and/or video files/programs, contained herein for any public or commercial purpose including for sale, unless prior written permission is first obtained from MINDEF (through DMC).

No user shall make use of any material contained within, or associated with this web-site, including, but not limited to, the use of any sign, logo, mark, or domain name associated with DMC, MINDEF or GOS (government of Singapore), whether such use be for, or in connection with, another web-site (including use of the materials in, or as, meta-tags in another web-site), or whether such use be in any other form, or through any other means, unless prior written permission is first obtained from MINDEF (through DMC)."

Can anything be done?

This one's tricky. The Police and MINDEF have to first investigate the identities and locations of the folks peddling these phone cases, and if they're not based in Singapore, arresting, asserting copyright and requesting cease-and-desist orders will become a far more complicated matter.

They certainly can take action against the Facebook page, though, which could arguably be misconstrued as an official Singapore Army page — this can be done simply by reporting it to Facebook.

Will you be penalised by anyone if you buy it? Probably not, either.

But their production costs are likely waaaaaay cheaper than the price they're selling them to you at.

(Editor's note: A previous version of this article incorrectly omitted the fact that it is a crime to misuse the Police logo without authorisation. This has since been corrected.)

Top photo via phone case listings