Custom Jewelry Artist and Copyright Laws

[kgkelsey]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? South Carolina

I am a jewelry artist that hand-stamps on jewelry items. I am trying to find out if there are ANY names, words, phrases or saying that I cannot use. People want phrases from their favorite TV or movie characters, names of shows, names of bands, lyrics from songs. Hell, if the words exist, they will put them on jewelry.

My second question is about a signature jewelry line that I would like to create and copyright. I took a phrase from a song that was written and sung in late 40’s early 50’s and copyrighted the phrase that I will hand-stamp and sell on my jewelry. First, I want to make sure that I can use the phrase and second I want to be able to make it my own and prevent other jewelry designers and artists from using it.

Since my jewlery is custom made to order and I am not COPYING any images just words and phrases, I want to make sure it is legal before I proceed.

 

[Mass_Shyster]

I took a phrase from a song that was written and sung in late 40’s early 50’s and copyrighted the phrase that I will hand-stamp and sell on my jewelry.

I doubt that your copyright is enforceable, and your use may violate the copyright of the song.

You may be able to license the phrase from the song copyright holder, but I don't know if that would give you standing to sue another jeweler for using the phrase.

Some of the senior members may be able to tell you more.

I really think you need your own attorney.

 

[kgkelsey]

Thanks for your response

Thanks Stevef.

I got some input from an attorney that specializes in IP and here is what they said.
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Your 1st questions has many parts. As a general rule, words, titles, and short phrases aren't copyrightable and you're free to use them. However, some of the other uses you mentioned are more problematic, and in general basing a jewelry business trading on phrases made famous by other people is problematic.

Song lyrics are usually reprinted only with permission from the rightsholder (usually the publisher who owns the copyright to the musical composition's music and lyrics). In this case, you want to create a piece of jewlery that's a "derivative work" based on these copyrighted lyrics, but only the rightsholder has the right to do that. If the lyric is something like "love hurts," Nazareth would have a difficult time claiming rights to that generic phrase. On the other hand, the Beatles would have a good claim if you wanted to use "Lucy in the sky with diamonds."

Famous characters' images and names are sometimes owned by someone and subject to copyright, trademark and unfair competition protection. Using just the names might be ok, but it's hard to tell in the abstract.

Names of well-known bands are probably servicemarked for their musical services, and often also trademarked for goods such as jewelry. This is probably the easiest example to classify as the kind of infringement and unfair competiton that will get you sued.

Your 2nd question is a version of the song lyrics question, but also seems to have trademark implications. By a "signature jewelry line," do you mean you want to copyright each piece separately, or that you want to create a line of goods under a brand identifying you as the source of the jewelry? Both are possible, assuming that the phrase you want to use isn't itself subject to copyright protection, which depends on what this phrase is. As with your other fact-specific inquiries, the question of whether these uses are infringing depends on the specific use involved.