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Message
Posted
The key legislation is the Copyright, Design and Patents Act of 1988. In summary ownership of copyright rests with the originator - in this case the companies whose work you wish to reproduce.
You would be reasonably safe in reproducing someone else's work merely for your own pleasure and as part of your own learning process but to place it on the market would potentially leave you open to legal proceedings.
Free publicity is not the issue - it is unlikely that any company would view it as such - they will wish to ensure that all reproductions meet their own high standards and not damage their reputation - I cannot see any company ever agreeing to others copying their work willy nilly without first having a say in the matter and without their express agreement.
Posted
A lot of pop paintings of the 1960's used branded products as subjects, I think you would be alright as there is no intention to deceive, it is a painting you are doing, not duplicating the product or the logo exactly. I see what Michael says but my view is go ahead, the key thing is intention to deceive, which you are not doing.Also you have tried your best to contact them, (have you kept the emails?) they haven't replied which could be interpreted as their agreement, if it came to it. Unlikely.
Posted
Denis is probably right that the risk of being challenged in the courts is probably very low but speaking as a crusty old lawyer (retired) my advice would always have been to err on the side of caution.
I don’t think intention to deceive is the problem here as clearly you would not be seeking to pass the design off as your own but rather, if offered for sale,you would be blatantly copying it for personal gain. If ever you were challenged in the courts the costs of defending yourself could be very high with little if any chance of success. Also simply because you had not received a reply is unlikely to cut any mustard - silence is not generally considered by the courts as constituting consent.
So there you go - two conflicting pieces of advice !!
Posted
You don't get hauled off to court straight away, if the worst came to the worst, (which I still very much doubt as you are not as far as I know a high profile artist, no offence meant) you would probably get a solicitors letter asking you remove the offending artwork from your website, exhibition or whatever..but you had better take heed of our resident Rumpole Of The Bailey's advice, he probably knows best...
Posted
:-D Thanks for your replies. It's good to hear two sides to the problem....i just don't want to drop myself in it!! It's a good job i'm not a photo realist painter as i suppose that would open up a whole can of worms. I think i'll go ahead with the painting, if nothing else but for personnal enjoyment. I'll send the company a photo and try and seek their approval that way before exhibiting. As you say i'm no big name in the art world (no offense was taken lol), so it would probably pass un-noticed, but would be just my luck to have the companies legal secratary turn up. It's always good to know these things i suppose.
Thanks again
Posted
In this months Artists and Illustrators mag someone has done a painting of a novelty Smarties tin. I doubt if they will be hauled off to court and fleeced for every penny they have by the International Smartie Organisation (or whatever). Amateur painters are small fry, they wouldn't bother, even if they got to hear about it. We await developments.
Posted
Thanks Denis....that's a good point. Funny you mention that because i remember a few months back in The Artist, the lady who painted the photo realistic chocolate bars. If i remember rightly, there was no mention of seeking permission and they got published too. Maybe i'm looking too deep into it but, wondered if this was an issue. This could be why i got no response from the brand......small fish in a big corporate world. To sue me would only give them what change i could find behind my sofa!!
Posted
I think you are worrying unduly, if it was such a problem what about photographers who include all sorts of everyday objects in their shots, and are BAE systems going to chase the thousands who photograph their Hawk T1A's and publish the shots, could seriously impact on the Red Arrows displays. (lol)
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