Does this infringe on copyright law?

[Noname1979]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? UK - but the copyright I'm talking about is US based....

Hi,

I have had a good look through the forum but can’t find anything relating to this topic exactly....I hope you can help.

I have had some designs drawn by a local artist. I own the rights to these designs. They are minimalist designs of superheroes. They don’t include the full features or logo; it just has a vague look of the hero. I want to use them to put on my personalised products. However I don’t fancy taking on the big guns over copyright infringement! We are just a small husband and wife family business.

I have done quite a bit of research and I’m just not sure whether the images I have are a 'substantial' part of the original idea. It would be great to show someone one here to see what you think. As I have been looking at them so much my judgement is clouded.

Also when I look at my competitors on places like EBay, they seem to be selling personalised superhero items and Disney items without any problems. Am I missing totally obvious something here? A lot of them have been trading for quite some time which make me think they cant be breaking any laws or they would have been found out by now, wouldn’t they?

Thanks in advance. Any advice greatly appreciated.

 

[quincy]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? UK - but the copyright I'm talking about is US based....

Hi,

I have had a good look through the forum but can’t find anything relating to this topic exactly....I hope you can help.

I have had some designs drawn by a local artist. I own the rights to these designs. They are minimalist designs of superheroes. They don’t include the full features or logo; it just has a vague look of the hero. I want to use them to put on my personalised products. However I don’t fancy taking on the big guns over copyright infringement! We are just a small husband and wife family business.

I have done quite a bit of research and I’m just not sure whether the images I have are a 'substantial' part of the original idea. It would be great to show someone one here to see what you think. As I have been looking at them so much my judgement is clouded.

Also when I look at my competitors on places like EBay, they seem to be selling personalised superhero items and Disney items without any problems. Am I missing totally obvious something here? A lot of them have been trading for quite some time which make me think they cant be breaking any laws or they would have been found out by now, wouldn’t they?

Thanks in advance. Any advice greatly appreciated.

I am not sure what your competitors on places like eBay are selling but, as a general rule, copying anyone else's copyrighted work is infringement and creating a work that is substantially similar to another's copyrighted work is infringement.

It is possible your competitors have not been detected yet. It is possible that the copyright holder is not the litigious sort. It is possible your competitors have obtained a license from the copyright holder to create a derivative of the original. It is possible the works being sold are not infringing for one reason or another. I can only guess. But it is generally not smart to base what you do on what others are doing because what others are doing may be violating a law.

If you are using a copyrighted superhero character to create your own, that could be looked at as a derivative of the original and creating derivatives is the exclusive right of the copyright holder.

To get a better idea of whether the designs you commissioned are infringing on a copyright holder's rights (and I hope you are sure of your rights in the designs), I recommend you have the designs reviewed by an IP attorney in your area before using them on products you plan to market. We do not do personal reviews on this forum.

Good luck.

 

[FlyingRon]

Note, it's almost always a bad idea to make decisions based on what "others have gotten away with" for the reasons Quincy stated.

Further, it doesn't take any "litigiousness" to make your auctions go away on Ebay. All they have to do is file a request (which after the first one they ever file with ebay, they can do online).

Marvel and Warner Brothers (DC Comic) are quite vehement in protection of their works. In addition, if you base anything on things that showed up in movies, you may have the giants like Sony Pictures to contend with.