• FreeAdvice has a new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, effective May 25, 2018.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our Terms of Service and use of cookies.

acronym and artwork/imagery copyright. Disneyland!

Accident - Bankruptcy - Criminal Law / DUI - Business - Consumer - Employment - Family - Immigration - Real Estate - Tax - Traffic - Wills   Please click a topic or scroll down for more.

BAMG

Junior Member
Hello guys! I am based in England, United Kingdom. Hopefully somebody can lend me a hand!
Is it possible to trademark or hold licensing rights over an acronym? As a silly example, if you were to market a sweater with the letters H&M sprawled across the front (Hennes & Mauritz) or anything really BMW, IBM etc. would this violate anything from a legal standpoint?

Lastly, how about an original image? Hypothetically if somebody were to paint an original artwork of disney land and utilise this design on a marketed product, would this encounter problems? Would the same apply for an original photographic image? From what i have gathered, infringement arises with the unlicensed use of a logo, name or crest. Or when a design or artwork is imitated or blatantly copied. But i was curious to see how extensive trademarking laws apply.
Thanks in advance.
 


FlyingRon

Senior Member
This is for US law only. UK law is available at http://www.thelawforum.co.uk

You are darned tooting (in the US at least) that initials (the examples you give are not acronyms. Acronyms are words), either just the words themselves or in combination with some stylistic rendering.
The rendering is also likely protectable by copyright.

You can GUARANTEE you're going to have issues with Disney if you paint one of their characters, whether you outright copy an existing piece of art or just paint an original work using their character.
Disney (and Warner Brothers if you tread on the Harry Potter stuff) is VERY aggressive about protecting their intellectual property. They'll come after you with both guns on copyright and trademark.
 

single317dad

Senior Member
Not to mention that even if you do find some loophole in the law (laws which others have been looking for loopholes in for many years, mind you), Disney will still sue you and they'll still win the war of attrition when you run out of money first.
 

quincy

Senior Member
Hello guys! I am based in England, United Kingdom. ...
BAMG, following are two UK government links to the trademark and copyright laws of the UK that you might find helpful in researching your questions:

http://www.gov.uk/topic/intellectual-property/trade-marks

http://www.gov.uk/topic/intellectual-property/copyrights

The laws in the UK are just enough different from those in the US that what applies to us in the US may not apply to you in the UK - but I agree with both FlyingRon and single317dad that your proposed product ideas are likely to run into infringement issues.
 

Find the Right Lawyer for Your Legal Issue!

Fast, Free, and Confidential
data-ad-format="auto">
Top