Washington State
I make wooden signs with phrases on them to hang around my house or for family members. If I wanted to attempt sale of my little wooden sign crafts, would using certain phrases from TV shows, movies, or books in tandem with certain images from same qualify as copyright infringement, or does it only qualify if I try to pass it off as an "official" anything? I have little to no understanding of copyright law, and all Google searches are coming up mind bogglingly difficult to understand.
Thank you!
Copyright law
can be "mind bogglingly difficult to understand."
A simple, and simplistic, way to look at copyright law, perhaps, is to just assume that under this law every single creative and original work you come across (literature, music, photographs, art, sculpture, songs, dance, movies, etc.) has rights attached to it that belong to the creator of the work.
When you legally purchase a copyrighted work, you own that one particular work but you do not own any rights
in the work. You can sell or give away or throw away the copyrighted work you purchased, but you cannot reproduce the work, or display the work, or perform the work, or make derivatives of the work. These rights remain with the copyright holder.
Again, this is a very simplistic explanation and there are many exceptions.
One of these exceptions can come with the use of short phrases which, on their own, cannot be copyrighted. However, although short phrases cannot be copyrighted, short phrases could potentially be protected under trademark law - and so this area of the law needs to be explored, as well.
Probably more problematic than your use of phrases would be your use of images from TV shows, movies or books. These will invariably have a copyright holder somewhere from whom you would need to acquire permission, if you wish to reproduce these images on your wooden signs and market your signs to others.
Labeling something "official" when this something is not officially sponsored or endorsed by a rights holder could lead to a false advertising claim, so you don't want to make any false claims of any kind.
Because what you are planning to do requires knowing all of the specific facts (what images, what phrases, what movies and books and tv shows), you will need to have a professional personally review your signs and the source material for your signs. You may want to contact an IP attorney or perhaps a business law professional in your area.
Again, this is all very basic information and there are exceptions that may apply to your use of phrases or images. For example, you may wish to google the words "public domain."
You can also visit the government copyright and trademark websites and read the Frequently Asked Questions. This might give you a better understanding of the laws.
http://www.copyright.gov
http://www.uspto.gov.
I wish you good luck with your plans and your eventual sales, Badwolfbay.
