Legal Question in Consumer Law in Virginia

Re: Artists rendition

This isn't a consumer protection question, this is an intellectual property question. I suggest you resubmit the question in that area of the LawGuru system.

That said, here's my two-cents' worth: you have to know first whether H-D claims a copyright on its logo as well as a trademark. As to the trademark alone, your friend is probably safe, since he isn't selling motorcycles, and H-D doesn't sell artworks. Further, the mark is incidental to the artwork's subject, and not used as a logo for your friend's product. Caution: the H-D mark is probably one that a court would find is "famous" and therefore entitled to greater protection against "antidilution". As to the copyright issue, your friend's question will be whether the artwork constitutes "fair use"; I'd say probably not, but it's a fuzzy area.

My conclusion is that no matter what opinions you get from lawyers, your friend may be buying a lawsuit; it may be one he could win, but he'll go bankrupt in the process. The easy way out of all this is to find someone at H-D whose job it is to process requests for "permissions". Get written permission to use the logo as described, then your friend is safe. They'll probably give permission for free, 'cause they like free advertising.