Re: Are drawings of products trademark infringements?
On Mon, Jan 10, 2005 at 09:08:09PM -0500, William Ballard wrote:
> It clearly states that some elements of an illustration are
> "protectable." A young boy with dark hair and eyeglasses is
> not protectable, but a young boy with eyeglasses, similar facial
> featurs, style and color of hair *clearly intending to be Harry
> Potter* is a violation.
The issue isn't whether these images are protectable, the issue is whether
our distribution of them would constitute infringement. Which is a very
different question.
A newspaper can run a story about trademarked products (cars, food,
movies, etc.) and this is fine, because they're not delivering a competing
product under those trademarks.
If you think of trademark law as a form of truth-in-advertising law,
you'll be a lot closer to accurate than if you think that the only issue
is whether or not some particular item is protectable by trademark.
--
Raul
Reply to: