Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Massachusetts

Copyright issues with customized lamps

Our company sells customized wall lamps. These lamps have faceplate, made of paper, which has a design hand-carved into it by our artist. We are trying to determine what images we can create without violating copyright or trademark laws. We have listed these questions below.

Our Product:

- Does our light box design need to be copyrighted or patented to protect or design from competitors?

- Is it possible that other light box designers might sue us for creating a similar design?

Copyrights & trademarks:

- Can we recreate well known trademarks? For example: The Coca-Cola logo, college logos, sport teams logos, band album art.

- Can we recreate characters from movies, video games, etc? For example: Disney's Mickey Mouse, Nintendo's Mario.

- Can we recreate scenes from movies? (similar to stills on movie posters)

- Can we create derivative art from online images that are not specifically marked in the creative commons/public domain? (i.e. google images, etc)

- We will be accepting images from our clients that we will recreate on the lamps. By having the client sign a disclaimer stating that to their knowledge the image is not copyrighted, will that sufficiently protect us?


Asked on 8/13/07, 10:28 am

3 Answers from Attorneys
Michael Stewart Michael D. Stewart

Re: Copyright issues with customized lamps

You will need an attorney/agent to obtain the licenses to use the above images.

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Answered on 8/13/07, 10:51 am
Gregory Lee Gregory P. Lee, Attorney at Law

Re: Copyright issues with customized lamps

If you are a company representative, you can pay for critical legal advice, and should do so.

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Answered on 8/13/07, 11:38 am
Lawrence Graves Coolidge & Graves PLLC

Re: Copyright issues with customized lamps

You are asking a whole slew of questions and many of them would require lengthy replies. More gently than the replies made heretofore, I suggest that you consult with an attorney and take advantage of the initial consultation that (at least most lawyers) provide free (for the first 1/2 hour) to determine the scope of legal services your company requires. Even if we were to provide an extensive answer here, your company would be foolish to rely on it without actually engaging a lawyer and obtaining formal advice.

Best wishes,

LDWG

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Answered on 8/13/07, 2:42 pm


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