a) Actually not "Lord Lyon," but the Procurator Fiscal of Lyon Court, an independent prosecutor, not the judge.

b) The X-Marks-the-Scot logo can't run afoul of Scottish heraldic law because...

Not to take "Life of Brian" tooooo seriously, but I've been told that this doesn't quite mean what it's supposed to mean. When Brian said "Romans, go home!" he meant back to Rome, to their own...

Tartans aside: the Welsh certainly had a tribal/clan organization similar to the Highland Scots, but the history of how surnames were adopted is a bit different, and as a result most Welsh surnames...

So, apart from the crest vs coat of arms terminology issue, already addressed by others:

Even under Scottish law, there's nothing to prevent someone from displaying a picture of any coat of arms...

Going back to your basic question regarding copyright of a coat of arms, you may want to look at this page from the American Heraldry Society website. The advice on copyright and trademark was...

But a chevron cotised is a chevron flanked by two narrow chevrons with the tincture of the field showing through in between, like this:
...

This is quite reasonable. Indeed, there's no particular reason to expect differences, with supporters, coronets, etc, unless some of the people using the arms were peers, etc. People descended in...

No, whatever it is, it isn't that. Isn't the blazon on the certificate? (It doesn't seem to have been uploaded to the online SABH database yet. ...

Whatever McLysaght meant (I've read him and don't find it completely clear), it wasn't that everyone with the same name shares the same arms. That is not the case anywhere, Poland included.

Be that as it may, descent from anyone earlier than William, 7th Earl of Menteith and 1st Earl of Airth, is irrelevant to a current claim. William resigned the ancient earldom and was reinvested by...

Tartans existed in 1689, but not the standardized tartans connected to names that we know today. Those are largely a creation of the 19th century.

Whoa! These are the arms of the Scrymgeour-Wedderburn Earls of Dundee, not Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee. Graham arms wouldn't look anything like this--they would be variations on the stem...

Several possible reasons that I can think of. First, the effect of the 1749 order is to establish a monopoly over nobiliary and heraldic matters for the royally-appointed kings/chroniclers of arms. ...

Sure, with a chronicler of arms (cronista) whose certifications aren't worth the paper they're written on, so why bother?

The effect of a Spanish certificate of arms is that no person can lawfully...

I neglected to point out the similar formula used by Lord Lyon: "We have Devised, and Do by These Presents Assign, Ratify and Confirm unto the Petitioner the said (name) and his descendants with...

It may seem like a quibble, but the stars (traditional Scottish term) in my arms are actually "Azure voided Argent" rather than "Argent fimbriated Azure." The voiding is to difference them from the...

In the United States, as in most countries, there is no more "official" way of obtaining arms than to adopt them unilaterally, whether by an individual or a corporate body. Many people are under...

As far as I'm concerned, it's not un-American to petition for a grant of arms from the English or Scottish heraldic authorities, but it is un-American to settle for 3 Sep 1783 as the date before...

The use of bordures and variations of line for differencing is something medieval Scots would have recognized--medieval Englishman, Frenchmen, and Germans, too. It's the systematized element that...

Thanks Carlo. That explains a lot--like why my Swiss ancestors are Mohler of Diegten and Strub of Läufelfingen (both Basel Land).

You've hit on one of the hot-button issues of Scottish--well, not heraldry exactly, but peripheral to heraldry.

What you're referring to is usually called a territorial designation, or TD for...

What arms mean in the US, whether inherited, granted, or assumed, is pretty much the same thing they mean everywhere else. They are a mark of personal and family identity that endures from one...

I believe you are mistaken as to official international recognition of the South African Bureau of Heraldry's grants. At one time the College of Arms would register South African registrations in...

What would be the point of registering the arms in South Africa unless David plans to use them in South Africa?

I would say that daughters do inherit but do not transmit unless they are heiresses (i.e., have no brothers).

I know some say that daughters only use their father's arms by courtesy, but if that...