Don't want to go to jail

[Rob73]

I want to cast a Mountain Dew label pen for my wife. She is hooked on the Dew. If I wanted to sell it would that be "legal" since it is a trademark of a company?

-Denny- NC

You would need to have a license from the company in order to use their name, logo and any media that goes along with the company. I looked into something similar with another company and it was a yearly license fee or get sued.

Selling at say a local 'craft fair' or something similar you would probably be safe. Selling online, risk goes up.

 

[Smitty37]

you should reread the complaint , they were not suing for making counterfeit pens , they were suing for modifying a privately owned MB pen by putting an overlay on it and in the other case for making customer requested repairs on a pen owned by a person , clearly no longer owned by MB in any way but the name and trademarks on the pen . They are stating that they still own the name and logo and even the triple center band after purchase and that the customers had no right to modify or repair said pens without MB's permission .
Oh and they filed these suits without first giving any cease and desist notice .

If it goes to trial, my bet would be that MB loses in both cases. The customer who bought the pens has every right to modify it in any manner they see fit. Just like GM can't prevent you from modifying their car once you've bought it ... up to and including putting an entirely different body on it with no GM Logos....and that happens all the time, watch NASCAR on any given Sunday or go to any big car show. I doubt that the law is different for pens.

MB wouldn't even be allowed to bring suit in most countries...the USA is the only place in the world where you can sue anybody for anything at any time.

 

[ldb2000]

Smitty , I totally agree with you , they would loose the case , at least I would hope that any judge in their right mind would either throw out the case or rule against them . The problem is you couldn't go to court for this without a lawyer , you would be nuts to try , and lawyers for this kind of case cost ... Big Time . so even if you won the case you would still spend thousands to defend yourself ..... so you loose . As Penopoly did even though they kinda won . That was my point .

 

[ldb2000]

I agree that they would not care as it is free advertising but I would still make contact with them you may even get something from them.
Now that i think about it if you made one and sent them the pen or some photos they may eve ask you to make some for them. You will never know until you give it a go

Good luck

That is not a good idea , check out the following link and take notice of #7 and 8 of their terms and conditions http://www.pepsi.com/termsandconditions.php
Most corporations have this clause in their terms and conditions .

 

[Smitty37]

going to court

Smitty , I totally agree with you , they would loose the case , at least I would hope that any judge in their right mind would either throw out the case or rule against them . The problem is you couldn't go to court for this without a lawyer , you would be nuts to try , and lawyers for this kind of case cost ... Big Time . so even if you won the case you would still spend thousands to defend yourself ..... so you loose . As Penopoly did even though they kinda won . That was my point .

It is usually not required -- but many courts will now award the defendant court costs and lawyer's fees if the plaintiff's case is found to be without merit. This is done to help prevent deep pocket companies from driving their smaller competitors out of business by constantly engaging them in meritless law suits just to keep them paying legal fees....

 

[Rfturner]

you can also do this if you ripped up the label and put pieces of it on the blank they can no longer do anything about it because then it is art, The pieces would be distiguishable from the original but it would be known what it was.

Sonic just did this with a commercial with wendy's They did not show the entire name and so Wendy's could not do anything about it. They also would not have to pay Wendy's for the commercial becasue they did not "actually" show the company

I agree though sometimes it is better safe than sorry. if you call them soda blanks or something Generic they also can't do anything about it, You can't copyright common phrases such as soda, Pop, etc.

 

[ldb2000]

It is usually not required -- but many courts will now award the defendant court costs and lawyer's fees if the plaintiff's case is found to be without merit. This is done to help prevent deep pocket companies from driving their smaller competitors out of business by constantly engaging them in meritless law suits just to keep them paying legal fees....

If I'm not mistaken you would have to file for reimbursement and the judge is not bound by law to rule in your favor . This is what happened to Penoploy and they ended up eating the costs of defending themselves . I would have to find the case again .

 

[DFerguson777]

Err...uh....I'm gonna rethink the whole idea. However, all the information and links are amazing resources to dig through.
Thanks
-Denny- NC

 

[Monty]

Just thought about this the other day. If they (the NFL or whoever) do not want you to profit from any of team logos and or colors, etc, why don't they put a stop to the ticket scalpers by suing them?