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In lugnet.publish.cinema, Lawrence Wilkes writes:
>
> "TWS Garrison" <tgarriso@math.purdue.edu> wrote in message
> news:GAto14.Lzw@lugnet.com...
> > In lugnet.publish.cinema, Tamyra Teed writes: • <snip>
> > Ah, but no one here has bought the Lego trademark, only ABS. As an analogy,
> > I could buy a case of Sprite, but if I made a movie wherein a character
> > visibily drank from cans of Sprite, the Coca-Cola company could be within
> > its rights to sue me for unauthorized reproduction (on film) of their
> > trademarked can and logo designs. Of course, they wouldn't, but if the
> > character in my hypothetical movie were depicted as both a Sprite addict and
> > a sociopathic serial rapist and murderer they might, on grounds that I was
> > damaging their product. I don't think that precise scenario applies to Lego
> > movies, but that's probably the same reasoning. And so Lego has a
> > reasonable right, IMHO, to exercise control over use of their
> > images--particularly any depictions of their logo or distinctive pieces,
> > such as minifigs.[1]
>
> But if you are not reproducing their logo, only using their bricks, then
> there is no unauthorized reproduction of trademarks, etc.
Quite right (assuming the resolution is too poor to distinguish the "Lego"
printed on each stud ;-). Someone who uses Lego *bricks*, and identifies them
only as "plastic building blocks" or something of the sort would probably be
fine. So Gary Istok could make a plastic building brick film, no problem.
However, I assume[1] that most Lego movies use Lego-specific pieces,
particularly minifigs. IANAL, but according to
http://www.lugnet.com/people/members/join/
"The Mini-Figure image is a trade dress of the LEGO Company", so I assume that
*any* unauthorized reproduction of a minifig could, potentially, be a problem
(although fair use would presumably allow most of the reproductions we see on
the Web, I think).
Of course, what I wonder about is the situation with regard to Best-Lock figs,
which already look enough like minifigs that most people would assume they
*were* minifigs. . .
FUT .publish.cinema (arrggh, here I go again, setting follow-ups to a group I
don't read. . .)
TWS Garrison
[1] I haven't actually seen any Lego movies, primarily because they tend to be
distributed in Solaris-unfriendly formats.
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: TLC/TLG about to supress fan created films?
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| Snipped everything out, but... Unless you 1) use the LEGO logo; 2) present the film as official production of TLC; 3) use LEGO products in the endorsement of something else, TLC has no right to say what can and can't be done with their products. I (...) (25 years ago, 27-Mar-01, to lugnet.animation)
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