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Obtaining permissions for branded logos and characters
I was wondering if anyone has any details on how to obtain official permissions to use/produce images of characters, logos etc…
I know it’s a bit of a vague question, but with not knowing anything about who manages, or is responsible for these type of things, I just wondered if anyone had any specific knowledge of this type of thing.
As an example, I know I could write to every premier football club, or car manufacturer, or Marvel, or Disney et al, but is there any one official body I could contact about licensing for these things? Is there a list/database/website of contacts or companies that handle this sort of thing?
I subscribe to dollarphotoclub and Adobephotostock, but they still don’t have these ‘branded’ images available. They’re both quite good for generic and general images, but not for things like Marvel characters, official logos and cartoon characters.
Would be interested to know if anyone has more knowledge/details about this.
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17 Replies
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Generally speaking, if you want to manufacture and sell branded products officially then contact the press / branding office of any major company with your proposal.
We have agreements in place to use the imagery and brands associated with several football clubs and presently in talks to produce several world famous cartoon characters under licence (preproduction samples).
Getting official brand licences isn’t hard work but quite time consuming…but do expect to get tied into rather wordy contracts and serious limitations on content and context.
Or just do as every other person seems to do….get image from Google and print it…play the odds that you are small fry and the company names / images you use won’t care!
Dave
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quote DavidRogers:Or just do as every other person seems to do….get image from Google and print it…play the odds that you are small fry and the company names / images you use won’t care!Dave
I wouldn’t take this advice. Working legitimately and ethically will pay much higher dividends in the long run IMO.
Is the relatively small amount of profit worth potentially losing any equipment you or your business owns?
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quote Steff Davison:quote DavidRogers:Or just do as every other person seems to do….get image from Google and print it…play the odds that you are small fry and the company names / images you use won’t care!
Dave
I wouldn’t take this advice. Working legitimately and ethically will pay much higher dividends in the long run IMO.
Is the relatively small amount of profit worth potentially losing any equipment you or your business owns?
🙄 Maybe I should have used a very large sarcastic tongue-in-cheek with rolling eyes after that.
Although who amongst us has sought permission for every brand we’ve put on a customer’s sign…the garage that wanted multiple car brands or tyre manufacturers or beauty salon that we put well known icons on. etc. We’ve all done some of this and nobody is whiter-than-white…
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I’ve done as David said, but most suppliers will turn a blind eye if the garage/salon/whoever is selling their products.
I’m sure pixar/disney will get a bit naffed off if your selling stickers their characters without permission as they’re loosing £££’s not only from the licence but undercutting the genuine products.
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I have often wondered about the vans with branding. Like the local plumber/gas engineer who asked me to put the Phillips Whirlpool and Worcester Boiler logos on his van. If he is licensed to work and supply their products does that include his right to advertise using their logos.
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We did a local garage a window decal with all the car brands on, advertising they serviced all these brands.
Within a week they called to ask us to remove them.
There are companies that oversee the the rights to use certain brands.
We were licensed to do a few classic mini items years ago, tbh it was a really lax contract, we just had to pay 10% of retail price of the items, when we sold any. It was easier for use to print 100 t shirts them send off the payment.
Not as scary as you might imagine, it might vary from brand to brand
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I agree with David, unless you’re going to advertise ”Frozen” windscreen stickers on *Bay I imagine you’ll get away with it.
My own experience from a few years ago:
I was contacted and asked to supply a number of different designs of bonnet badge insert for the the original model Mini. The chap had a big mail order business selling parts for the Mini and asked me specifically to supply some of the badges in plain brown envelope for which I would be paid cash – no invoice thanks, and only to give them to him; not the staff. Somewhat intrigued and amused I complied with the cloak and dagger situation but naturally my curiosity got the better of me on delivery day so I had to ask why. In hushed tones at the far end of the counter he explained that he was obliged to destroy his previous stock following some advice from a couple of gents in sharp suits representing BMW, who of course own the Mini brand. The brown envelope badges were original Mini copies of course and the farce went on for a couple of years before he sold the business – It still makes me laugh even now when I remember tucking the envelope in my jacket and looking up and down the road before entering the shop. This all took place long before the internet was available – no Google search in those days. -
quote DavidRogers:quote Steff Davison:quote DavidRogers:Or just do as every other person seems to do….get image from Google and print it…play the odds that you are small fry and the company names / images you use won’t care!
Dave
I wouldn’t take this advice. Working legitimately and ethically will pay much higher dividends in the long run IMO.
Is the relatively small amount of profit worth potentially losing any equipment you or your business owns?
🙄 Maybe I should have used a very large sarcastic tongue-in-cheek with rolling eyes after that.
Although who amongst us has sought permission for every brand we’ve put on a customer’s sign…the garage that wanted multiple car brands or tyre manufacturers or beauty salon that we put well known icons on. etc. We’ve all done some of this and nobody is whiter-than-white…
My apologies, the post makes me look like snow white, that wasn’t my intention. My remarks were made in the context of using Marvel and Disney type images. Putting an image of a box of oxo cubes on a window poster is a different situation to printing Iron Man bursting through your bedroom wall.
I looked at licensing with a well know brand, its not that simple. They require all sorts of criteria be met, including they want an upfront payment ( in the £1,000’s) differing royalty percentages triggered by different sales volumes etc.
Minimums, penalty clauses and the like.It seemed like too much hassle for what I wanted so walked away. I could rip images off like many other sellers do, I don’t believe they have all negotiated image rights with the rights owners but its not something I will do.
Steff
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Im with Steff on this one.
We deal with several large Breweries over the UK and whilst some of them are very easy going about using certain brands in their signage and displays. Some take you through the whole process of registering with their brand agencies etc.
A bleddy nightmare i tell ‘e!! -
Hi everybody and thank you for the input.
I still don’t really have any definitive answer on this one. In fact, since I raised this issue, I’m even more confused. The reason for this confusion is as follows.
I currently subscribe to a stock photo company. All of the images I use for advertising etc are fully paid for and so I don’t have any concerns in that department.
However, most of the images I use are generic – landscapes, food, animals and so on. But I just searched the Shutterstock website and they have numerous images of branded products, Coke, Pepsi etc.I have read the comments that it should be reasonable for a business to advertise the merchandise it supplies, but I have also seen the comments about the car dealership having to take down logos/images of car brands they deal with. This all seems a little ambiguous. I agree that if I own a shop/garage and I sell/service cola/BMW I should be able to advertise that fact. But, apparently, I can’t.
What I’m not too sure of is, if I pay Shutterstock the licence to use the image, could I still be liable for legal action from said brands? I have actually emithered Shutterstock support asking this very question, but I’m only asking here in case somebody already knows.
Pete J.
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It’s very straightforward. Unless you have permission from the owner of the brand then you face potential prosecution. Shutterstock have a number of license agreements that you can purchase, some are for personal use no profit and the more expensive licences allow you to sell a certain number.
The bottom line is using branding images is expensive, I am a license holder of a few famous brands and when I spot anyone using these I take action to protect my brand, license and income.
Good luck.
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Quick question
I have this week printed (off google) a Bob the Builder logo for a local company. They have had previously one on the bonnet of their vans for 15 years (not by me) So if they got pulled up on it and lets face it its a very sad world we live in if people have nothing better to do would he be done for displaying it or would i be done for printing it at their request?
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quote Jean Oakley:Quick question
I have this week printed (off google) a Bob the Builder logo for a local company. They have had previously one on the bonnet of their vans for 15 years (not by me) So if they got pulled up on it and lets face it its a very sad world we live in if people have nothing better to do would he be done for displaying it or would i be done for printing it at their request?
If I’m not mistaken.. the short answer is yes. You have produced the image for commercial gain.
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quote Peter Johnson:Hi everybody and thank you for the input.I still don’t really have any definitive answer on this one. In fact, since I raised this issue, I’m even more confused. The reason for this confusion is as follows.
I currently subscribe to a stock photo company. All of the images I use for advertising etc are fully paid for and so I don’t have any concerns in that department.
However, most of the images I use are generic – landscapes, food, animals and so on. But I just searched the Shutterstock website and they have numerous images of branded products, Coke, Pepsi etc.I have read the comments that it should be reasonable for a business to advertise the merchandise it supplies, but I have also seen the comments about the car dealership having to take down logos/images of car brands they deal with. This all seems a little ambiguous. I agree that if I own a shop/garage and I sell/service cola/BMW I should be able to advertise that fact. But, apparently, I can’t.
What I’m not too sure of is, if I pay Shutterstock the licence to use the image, could I still be liable for legal action from said brands? I have actually emithered Shutterstock support asking this very question, but I’m only asking here in case somebody already knows.
Pete J.
The other thing to consider with shutterstock… after looking up what an enhanced licence covered, I decided to email them, a nice young lady from the USA called me and we had a fairly lengthy discussion… essentially I asked about vehicle signage and shop signs etc.. and their answer was that neither the standard, nor the enhanced license cover vehicle signage as it’s unquantifiable… ie. you can print 100,000 flyers because supposedly 100,000 people will see them, or posters, whatever, but you can’t decide how any people will see a sign!!
To be honest, 99% of what I download from shutterstock is for an element of the design that I like or want to use, rarely do I use anything ‘as downloaded’, although technically you’re not allowed to edit what you download either!!
bit of a minefield!
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quote Steff Davison:quote Jean Oakley:Quick question
I have this week printed (off google) a Bob the Builder logo for a local company. They have had previously one on the bonnet of their vans for 15 years (not by me) So if they got pulled up on it and lets face it its a very sad world we live in if people have nothing better to do would he be done for displaying it or would i be done for printing it at their request?
If I’m not mistaken.. the short answer is yes. You have produced the image for commercial gain.
I’m not sure you can be or would be prosecuted for a one of job like that, unless of course you re-created an image etc.
My smallprint stipulates (along the lines of) .. the customer is responsible for all the approropriate permissions, and must be affiliated/ members of any Org’s in order to use any logo’s or brand names they request. Customers are also requested to supply the logo’s requested and we accept no responsibility for infringement of copyright for fitting said logo’s. While we do not ask for proof of these permissions, it will be assumed that the customer has them.
Probably wouldn’t stand up in a court but we all make and fit trade logo’s etc.. don’t we? The ones supplid by the different Org’s & associations are generally utter 5hite!!
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Hugh is Correct.
A lot of stock libraries forbid you to sell or transfer the image on. So you cannot buy it for your customer.
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I think the issue is that if you are using licensed images and printing them solely to make money from them e.g. 10,000 ebay stickers then you deserve to be prosecuted. To use a logo which is part of a customers business and they have requested this i.e ‘Bosch’ then it is only fair to assume that they have permission to do this. This is generally a one off and would enhance the sales of these products in principle and is your customers responsibility.
It’s a minefield but common sense should prevail.
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