Heraldic fraud

Heraldic fraud may either mean, to falsely claim the right to a coat of arms to which a person does not have the right, or to falsely claim someone else has that right and thereby selling heraldic art to him to which he has no right. Both can be seen as a kind of fraud and an infringement on intellectual property rights.

According to the Law of Arms in most heraldic jurisdictions, usage of a pre-existing coat of arms must be predicated on some form of relation. Typically, inheritance of arms flows through the male line, though in many traditions it may flow through the female line as well.

In heraldry, a "bucket shop" is a company that will sell a coat of arms associated with the customer's surname, regardless of whether the customer can actually claim a relation to the original armiger. Bucket shops may work from a database of surnames and shields sourced from manuscripts, armorials, and various journals.

Further reading

• "The Privileges of the College of Arms (Concluded)". The Genealogical Magazine, Volume 5. pp. 103–106. Elliot Stock., 1902.
• "Bucket+shop"+heraldry&q=Bucket+shop#v=onepage&q=Bucket shop&f=false "Falling Leaves". Genealogica & heraldica: proceedings of the 22nd International. Ottawa 1996