copyright advice needed

[blademaster]

What is the name of your state? Florida

Need advice regarding copyright law.
Hello,

I have run into a dilemma and wanted to seek opinions before i hire a lawyer. I currently sell knives and swords online. I sell original licensed swords as well as replicas of the same said swords however i use completely different names and do not try to pass them off as the real thing. A few days ago my webhosting company and ecomerce company were sent a letter threatening legal action agains both of them if they did not remove my site do to items being sold that were infringing on their copyright.

Well my ecommerce provider faxed me the letter what they received with a list of all of their copyrights and a list of what they feel was infringing upon their copyrights. However after doing some basic research of copyright law online i was under the impression that a copyright applies to a literary product be it a photograp that was published in a catalog, newspaper story poem etc. And that it does not protect a physical good such as a sword knife or dagger unless that item has a patent. Am i correct with this assumption? I do not currenly label any of the replicas under this companies copy written name whatsoever and i am aware that most of their items do not have a patent.

So what im trying to ask is am i violating a copyright by selling an item that is simply a reproduction of something that has not been patented? Your opinions are greatly appreciated in advance as im trying to save money from hiring a lawyer if he is only going to tell me im in the wrong anyway.

I however suspect they are trying to scare me and my hosting companies (ie. rackspace and monstercommerce) into taking these items down.

 

[divgradcurl]

Actually, you can have a copyright in a material object -- however, the problem is seperating out the "expression" from the "utility." You can only copyright the expression. If the "expression" is inseperable from the "utility" then you cannot obtain a copyright on the object.

I know this is probably confusing and somewhat esoteric, but it is what it is. I would guess that you could probably make a good argument that things like the shape of the blade and handle can't be copyrighted because you can't seperate the expression from the utility; however, any ornamentation on the blade or handle probably could be copyrighted. This part of copyright is complicated and very fact-specific, so you will almost certainly need to speak with a competent copyright attorney to get an accurate answer.

Partly because of the complex nature of this part of copyright law, most things like this are either covered by a design patent or, more likely, under trademark and trade dress.

Good luck.