Legally displaying another programs icon
<p>I'm making an app which controls other applications. I am displaying different program icons to identify which application the user is controlling.</p>

<p>I never save the icons or distribute them. The app finds the image from the users computer only when the program is running.</p>

<p>Are there any legal implications here? If I were to advertise my app by posting screenshots which display another programs icon, does that infringe upon any copyrights?</p>

<p>I was looking at <a href="https://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/1987/legal-stance-on-using-application-icons-within-our-product">this question</a> but I wasn't really sure if that answers my question or not. I know next to nothing about legal matters.</p>

<p>Assuming that the answer on your linked question from <a href="https://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/1987/legal-stance-on-using-application-icons-within-our-product">User Experience</a> is correct, your questions are basically identical to each other.</p>

<p>Generally, logo's are used to identify a product. Many software organizations actually encourage you to use them to identify their items. They will generally come with guidelines that dictate how they can be used: Here are <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/legal/intellectualproperty/trademarks/usage/default.aspx" rel="nofollow">Microsoft's guidelines as an example</a>.</p>

<p>If you're querying the Windows APIs to find the images, you should just about be fine. You're not necessarily distributing them, and you're using it to identify a product that is not yours.</p>

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