9 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}
9 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}

Question about trademark issue

by tiagofreitas
7 replies
I have an idea on promoting stuff on facebook and other platforms, the idea is using a celebrity image to promote something, like this:

Example: Using a Britney Spears image, but exchanging her dress to something I sell, this would make the product more apealing.

Is this legal in any way? Anyone would care to share some thought about this? :confused:
#issue #question #trademark
  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by tiagofreitas View Post

    Example: Using a Britney Spears image, but exchanging her dress to something I sell, this would make the product more apealing.

    Is this legal in any way?
    This forum's a very bad place to ask for legal advice.

    I'm not a lawyer (did you guess?) but I feel pretty confident that in most countries that would be an abuse of Britney Spears' civil law rights, and that you'd quickly get into terrible legal trouble (whether you owned the copyright of the original photo or not).

    If you were Britney Spears, how would you feel about people exploiting your image in that way, without permission, for their own financial gain? :confused:

    Do you think she might employ some sort of agency (just as so many other celebrities do) specifically to identify instances of people doing that and similar things, so that their contingent-fee sharks - sorry, "lawyers" - can serve notice of court-proceedings and/or demands for compensation on them?

    (By the way, I suspect your question isn't really about "trademarks", per se. Some celebrities do trademark their own names, but whether or not Britney Spears has actually done so probably isn't going to be relevant to the disaster you might walk into by doing something as ill-advised as this.)
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9210590].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author JensSteyaert
    I'm pretty sure you can't use celebrities to promote your stuff, after all, why would big companies pay them millions to appear in their commercials?

    If you're marketing strategy was legal they would be wasting a lot of money
    Signature

    Join ADZbuzz Here:

    ADZbuzz Social Network And Content Discovery Platform

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9210619].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Alessandro Zamboni
    This is the worst idea you can get for advertising. You will go straight into trouble. Never use names and images of people and companies. Find something cool on any image distribution network like Fotolia, and you won't get any problem, getting even better results

    See you soon,
    Alessandro
    Signature
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9210687].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author tiagofreitas
    Thanks for your imput!

    I thought it wasn´t legal, so now I'm sure

    One other idea was to promote a t-shirt about a tv-series character, him wearing the shirt would be awesome, but now I know it´s not doable..
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9210705].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author kindsvater
    One does not have to be a lawyer to know this is not legal. But, at least you asked since you had a question.

    The flip side, though, is a possible parody. For instance, putting a celebrity in a funny outfit. Example: what if North Korea passed a law imposing a dress code on US celebrities? If you sold the outfit that would still be a problem. But having general advertising, such as Adsense, might be possible.

    This is quite fact specific so you would first have to understand the legal issues and then evaluate whether what you are doing or planning is feasible.

    .
    Signature
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9210859].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    You can get your butt sued big time for doing that. Not only would their image be copyrighted, implying an endorsement by a celebrity is not allowed. Oprah has sued for this as have other celebrities.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9210979].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author James.N
    Originally Posted by tiagofreitas View Post

    I have an idea on promoting stuff on facebook and other platforms, the idea is using a celebrity image to promote something, like this:

    Example: Using a Britney Spears image, but exchanging her dress to something I sell, this would make the product more apealing.

    Is this legal in any way? Anyone would care to share some thought about this? :confused:
    When it comes to trademark/copyright issues, if you have to ask, you probably want to stay away from it. Better safe than sorry.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9213954].message }}

Trending Topics