The composition of coats of arms are generally public domain with respect to copyright laws, and may be reproduced freely.
This corresponds to the international traditional usage, and is explicitly stated in some national copyright laws. Some compositions, of more recent origin, may be copyrighted.
This is not a valid license as such, being a "public domain" statement for the coat of arms definition only. It must be completed with the copyright tag associated to the picture creation.
Please note that this applies only to the coat of arms definition (composition / description). The representation of a coat of arms is an artistic creation, subject as such to copyright laws.
Restriction of use - Legal notice: Most of the time, the usage of coats of arms is governed by legal restrictions, independent of the status of the depiction shown here. A coat of arms represents its owner. Though it can be freely represented, it cannot be appropriated, or used in such a way as to create a confusion with or a prejudice to its owner.
Usage on Commons: Please provide licence information for the coat of arm representation, information for the author of the picture, and the source if not self-made work.
This work includes material that may be protected as a trademark in some jurisdictions. If you want to use it, you have to ensure that you have the legal right to do so and that you do not infringe any trademark rights. See our general disclaimer. This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required.See Commons:Licensing.
This text document, published by the United Nations without a copyright notice, was left in the public domain in order to disseminate "as widely as possible the ideas (contained) in the United Nations Publications" (detail). It falls into one of the following categories outlined in Administrative Instruction ST/AI/189/Add.9/Rev.2 (paragraph 2):
Official records (proceedings of conferences, verbatim and summary records, periodic supplements, compilations of resolutions, etc.)
Public information material designed primarily to inform the public about United Nations activities (not including material that is offered for sale)
See Also: {{PD-US-no notice-UN}} to be used by document of the United Nations published in the United States prior to 17 September 1987 and {{PD-UN-map}} for UN maps.
This image shows a flag, a coat of arms, a seal or some other official insignia. The use of such symbols is restricted in many countries. These restrictions are independent of the copyright status.
Article 2 of Japanese copyright law defines that a work is eligible for copyright when it is a production in which thoughts or sentiments are expressed in a creative way and which falls within the literary, scientific, artistic or musical domain. Japanese courts have decided that to be copyrightable, a text logo needs to have artistic appearance that is worth artistic appreciation. Logos composed merely of geometric shapes and texts are also not copyrightable in general. See COM:CRT/Japan#Threshold of originality for more information.