Copyright n' Coasters

[FLIPDUDE]

Well as some of you know I'm working on a comic book based on funny true stories that happened to me. Some of which happened during the TPR 2007 Midwest trip.

 

Now, alot of the places and names I want to use in the book are copyrighted, such as Cedar Point, Top Thrill Dragster, and even non coaster palces such as Mcdonalds & Taco Bell.

 

 

I'm not so worried about putting Israeli establsihments in the book, but corporate america does have a reputation for being letigious.

 

I emailed many of the big companies, including Cedar Fair, Paramount, Mcdonalds, you name it. I got a response from ONE of them, an italian company that probably didnt understand what I was saying anyway. All the rest - NOTHING.

 

Now, seeing as I hope to publish this book in America too, I'd really like it if I didn't get SUED.

I'm a 19 year old cartoonist and a college student, so it's needless to say hiring a lawyer is way out of my budget.

 

Since this book is based on real events, I really rather not start twisting names aorund like "Taco Ball" or "WcDonalds".

When I write about top Thrill dragster I want people to be able to go online and look it up.

 

I even considered making long distance calls to some of thes eplaces, but it's expensive and go figure if it'll help.

 

Can anybody help me? I'd really like to be able to post conversations as they happened, and show places as they really are called.

 

[AmyUD06]

No offense, but if making long-distance calls is "too expensive," how do you plan on getting this thing published?

 

Write it using whatever names you want. If publishing time comes around, your attorney (who you will have to ensure the publishing company isn't going to screw out out of royalties/intellectual property rights) will advise you as to what you are and aren't allowed to use and may contact the places in question in an attempt to secure permission to use their names.

 

You sound like you really haven't thought this through.

 

If you're just going to "publish" this on the internet I doubt you'll have anything to worry about. Unless you're badmouthing the places or somehow profiting from use of their name, they likely won't care. Don't use trademarked logos without permission. Do you see Cedar Fair or Six Flags suing every poster on these boards for using the names of their parks/rides? No.

[FLIPDUDE]

I AM giving this alot of thought, this is not my first published comic book, it's just the first one to have copyrighted names in it and a hope of being published in america. There's no need to belittle me.

 

I don't publish my books via a publishing company, around here there's no point in even going to them with a comic book unless it has about a hundred pages and a hard cover. I print and publish them myself(or if there's a large quanitity required, I print them at a print shop), much like other Israeli cartoonists.

Therefore, I have no attorney.

 

As to how I can afford printing - it's really not that expensive. But knowing how many companies I need to call, and how come it's likely that every single one of them will put me on hold for half an hour or have me go through a call redirection system, that becomes expensive.

 

And no, of course they're not suing us for talking about them, because we're just having conversation, but once I put them in a comic book which I SELL and therefore make money on, it's a ocmpletely different story. Fact is, you do not see many copyrighted company names in the media unless it's a sponsorship, or a talk show.

[AmyUD06]

Well, if you hope to sell it in the US, you will need a copyright attorney. I don't mean to belittle you, and I'm sure you're a well-respected expert over there in your country, however you are obviously unfamiliar with trade practices here in the US.

 

Here, if your product is anywhere near quality and/or popular and not trademarked, someone will rip it off, claim it their own, and then sue YOU for copyright infringement. Which is why you will need an attorney, to ensure that you have the IP trademarked before you even show it in the US let alone sell a single copy.

 

Have you even tried e-mailing the legal departments of any companies?

 

Here's contact info for Cedar Fair corporate:

http://www.cedarfair.com/ir/company/contactinfo.cfm

 

One of those e-mail addresses should be able to direct you to the legal department. Of course, a thumbs up from them in an e-mail isn't enough. You'll need notarized statements of permission to use, and likely a contract stating that you will not use it any negative manner and any possible royalties back to the company from your sales. While an attorney isn't necessary to enter into a contract, for someone as clearly unfamiliar with business practices in the US, it would certainly be advised that you use one.

 

I'm sure I sound like a dick but that's not my intent. I don't really know what kind of help you're looking for here. Any one of us telling you "it's okay, don't worry about it" doesn't have to face the consequences and is in no place to tell you that.

 

If you want to be on the 110% up-and-up, you're GOING to have to contact the legal departments of the copyright holders for any properties you wish to use and get official, written documents showing permission. Or, you could do what most do, and do what you want and hope nothing comes back to bite you; webcomics use trademarked names and likenesses all the time.

[FLIPDUDE]

Sigh... If it's this much trouble I definately think I'll have to pass on publishing it on anything larger than a couple-of-stores scale in america... Then again I don't know if I ever really planned on it being large scale. I just want to se ehow this goes to begin with. If americans owuld even be interested in buying my comics.

 

 

As I said I did email the companies involved, and only one answered back.

 

Well either way I just made a long distance call to Cedar point. Sure enough I was faced with both a call redireciton system and being put on hold a couple of times, but eventually Beth, the nice lady I talked to, gave me the number of the PR representative and told me to try calling tommorrow. If I can at least get Cedar Fair to give me a green light that would already be great, seeing as many of the trademarks in the book are Cedar Fair related (Breakers hotel, Cedar Point, Kings Island, and all the rides in said parks)

 

 

 

I appreciate your help. You're right, just having people say "dont worry, they wont find out" wouldn't of been helpful. I guess I was mostly just hoping to hear from Americans who know first hand how letigious the corporations are what owuld happen in case that they DID find out. What are the odds of **** hitting the fan.

[MidtownCoaster]

I can't officially give you advice... but, if someone who went to law school and studied intellectual property law were to look at your situation, he might say your big issue was with trademark infringement, not copyright. Very few of the things you mention have copyright issues unless you use artwork or pictures. He might also say there is a fair use doctrine in parody where one could google that idea and find a LOT of good information on the web one could use. Although he may need to rework the comic to poke a bit of fun at the places and not use them verbatim and to change the name slightly (i.e. EPCOT to EFCOT Center), you would have a better chance. He might also say that the little R means Registered Trademark and the little C means copyright. Don't use either one with big companies because they may sue you. Small chance, but big issue if they do.

 

You also can find some trademark and copyright resources on the web for relatively cheap.

[robbalvey]

Tomi,

 

I'm not sure the advice you have been given is 100% accurate. Look at a book like "Mouse Tales" where the book, for the most part, tells "horror stories" about Disneyland and the Walt Disney Company. That book uses just about every copyrighted name in the Disney library that I can think of! And all it says on the back of the book is "This book is in now way authorized by, associated with, or endorsed by Disneyland Park or the Walt Disney Company."

 

That book has sold millions and how does he get away with that?

 

Now granted that is completely a different type of publication than what you are proposing, but my background in entertainment and as someone who works with other entertainment companies IP's EVERY DAY on multi-million dollar projects (and some of them are book publications), I think you may have a bit more flexibility than you're being told.

 

For example, if your story is about fictional events going on at Cedar Point and it shows the park off in a negative way, you'll run into issues. But if your story is a comic interpretation of ACTUAL events at Cedar Point, that may be something else.

 

Publications like Rollercoaster magazine and First Drop don't need to get permission from each park to write about them. I don't need permission for any parks for what we publish on the website.

 

Do all political or satire comic strips need permission from certain companies that are sometimes featured in them? I'm not sure.

 

If your use of the IP directly influences your product's sales, and the owner of that IP can prove that, you'll certainly have issues. But if the name of the park in your comic could be Cedar Point or Cedar Peak and sales of the comic wouln't be affected by the name used, I'm not sure if it's going to matter (or be noticed) by anyone.

 

Another example, a "Star Wars" branded sci-fi book is probably going to sell a lot more units than a generic "sci-fi" book. And if you're going to write a Star Wars story you'd better make sure you have the rights to do so and have a royalty agreement in place.

 

Just my thoughts (but don't take this as real legal advice!)

 

--Robb

[FLIPDUDE]

Thanks, everyone! Youve been a great help.

[larrygator]

The last I heard, most forms of speech (spoken and written word) are protected in the USA. Of course there are exceptions when the "speech" is indecent, could cause harm or when slander/libel is involved.

 

Even though I passed a "Law of Mass Communications" course, I'm no legal expert either.