Quote Originally Posted by Tartan Jock View Post
Someone must be asleep at the wheel then, as literally thousands of representations of coats of arms are sold at profit to persons having no grant from any heraldic authority - a situation which continues with complete impunity on a daily basis though hundreds of heraldic bucket shops like this one worldwide. How many cases has any of these heraldic authorities prosecuted against such businesses who sell the armorial bearings of others to persons they are not registered to?
No one is asleep at the wheel. There is, however, a popular misconception concerning "bucket shops" and the duties (as opposed to the authority) of heraldic officers such as the Lord Lyon.

Something which you and a great many "armchair armorists" overlook is the fact that it is not against the law to sell a coat of arms as a decorative item. Nor is it against the law to display a coat of arms as a decorative item. It is, however against the law to use someone else's arms in business, or to ursurp them and pass them off as your own.

Basically what it boils down to is this:

It is up to the armiger to defend and protect his rights in the first instance. Only if an armiger complains to the heraldic authority will they take action. Now in probably 99 out of 100 instances the bucket shop will comply with the request of the armiger to "cease and desist". If they don't (and a few won't) then the heraldic authority may, if so requested, intervene. Usually when this happens the shop keeper rolls over. If he doesn't it may lead to civil or criminal prosecution as has happened recently in Scotland with a bus company displaying the Royal Arms on its coaches, and a company in Edinburgh churning out baseball hats by the thousand.