Subject:
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Re: Use of LEGO on album cover... legal or no?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Mon, 12 Mar 2001 08:50:24 GMT
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Viewed:
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649 times
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Hi, everybody.
Just wanted to fill you guys in on what has happened since I first posted.
A fellow LUGNETer sent me the e-mail address of someone at LEGO who deals
with these sorts of things, and with whom he had dealt successfully in the
past. I wrote up an e-mail politely explaining my situation, (wanting to
use a MOC on my band's album cover, see above) and asking if there was any
way we could get official permission to do so. I mentioned that no albums
had been sold with the proposed cover yet, and that we'd be happy to include
any sort of legal disclaimer in the liner notes which clearly stated that
this was NOT a LEGO product, etc. Finally I also included a link to MOC in
question.
The very next day I received a response that was friendly enough, the only
problem was that I'd given the wrong URL for the MOC photos. Oops! The
letter also stated:
"I would be happy to consider your request and provide you with disclaimer
language if the use is approved, once I have confirmed which image you would
like to use."
Sounded good, so I sent off the corrected URL, which if you are interested,
is: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=3502
And two days later I got the response:
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"I have taken a look at the image of the model that you want to use and I am
sorry to say that we cannot grant permission for you to use it as your album
cover.
While it is a very creative model, we believe that such a use of our
trademarked and copyrighted minifigures creates too great a risk of consumer
confusion by fostering the misleading impression that The LEGO Group either
created the products you are offering for sale or that your products are in
some way related or endorsed by the LEGO Group. When I say 'too great a
risk,' I mean that the risk could not be overcome by a simple disclaimer on
the product. In case you are not aware of this, risk of confusion is one of
the elements that a court examines in determining trademark infringement.
In addition, as we are currently in development of music in relation to many
of our products, including the new BIONICLE(tm) line, your use would pose an
even greater risk of confusion.
We believe that such use, while it might not be your intent, would also
improperly trade upon the goodwill that the LEGO Group has built up in its
products and services.
Therefore, we ask that you do not use the proposed model as the cover of
your album. I hope that as the LEGO(R) enthusiast you appear to be, you can
understand and respect our position, and will take the appropriate steps to
ensure that any improper use of our trademarked and copyrighted minifigures
does not occur. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact
me. We appreciate your interest in our products and our company. Play
well!"
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Needless to say I am very disappointed.
The crux of their argument is that our album cover runs too great a risk of
creating consumer confusion. That is a bit hard for me to believe.
Wouldn't any official LEGO product prominently display the world-famous
bright red LEGO logo in several places? Our proposed album art did not use
that or any other LEGO logo, nor even the word LEGO at all.
According to their view, it's hard to imagine any album cover which features
LEGO in any prominence getting official permission, and that is kind of sad.
I am interested in hearing what other LUGNETers think about this case. Does
this denial of permission seem reasonable? Do you think the law is on their
side here?
My band, The Human Heads, has begun work designing a new and different album
art concept which does not use LEGO at all. At this point we really have no
other choice. Even if we felt that the law was clearly on our side, we do
not have sufficient time or money to spend on court costs defending ourselves.
In the end, I feel quite sure that in the future LEGO will rue the day that
disaccociated themselves and their products from us. We firmly believe that
The Human Heads will be the most widely recognized band name in the world by
2005. @8-D
And isn't it rather disturbing that LEGO is developing music products to go
along with Bionicle, especially after that "We will refocus on our core
business" press release last week?
Well, that's the latest. Let me know what you think. And "Play well!"(TM)*
-The Rev. Brendan Powell Smith
http://www.thehumanheads.com
*Use of the patented, tradmarked, copyrighted, and otherwide legally
protected phrase Play well!(TM) in this post is highly illegal and as such I
will be hiding out in Mexico for a week to avoid incarceration by the Space
Police(TM).
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Message has 4 Replies:
 | | Re: Use of LEGO on album cover... legal or no?
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| (...) It sounds like typical LEGO policy. Sorry to hear it happened. I've been there. Hey, how about all those great T-shirts we can get from LEGO Direct... oh wait, never mind. :^P ~Grand Admiral Muffin Head (23 years ago, 12-Mar-01, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: Use of LEGO on album cover... legal or no?
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| Ok, Rev. here's what I've got to say..First of all I like the stuff you have posted on brickshelf. Secondly the image (wall of heads) could have been generated from scratch for all anybody knows. You did the right thing by corresponding with Lego (...) (23 years ago, 12-Mar-01, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: Use of LEGO on album cover... legal or no?
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| In article <GA2tw0.72u@lugnet.com>, (...) This seems ridiculous to me. Did The Cars get the permission of Chrysler to use a 340 Duster on the cover of Heartbeat City? Did Rush have to get permission from Tinkertoy to use those on their Different (...) (23 years ago, 14-Mar-01, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: Use of LEGO on album cover... legal or no?
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| In lugnet.general, Brendan Powell Smith writes: [snip] (...) Well, I guess I'll share a bit of my opinion on the LEGO brand, trademarks, etc. I firmly believe LEGO is overstepping their bounds here. The only thing they really have going for them in (...) (23 years ago, 14-Mar-01, to lugnet.general)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Use of LEGO on album cover... legal or no?
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| Hi there. I'm in a band named The Human Heads. For our recently completed album, we would like to use a photo I took of a LEGO creation I made. You can see the album cover itself and other photos of the structure on my Brickshelf account: (URL) (...) (23 years ago, 25-Feb-01, to lugnet.general)
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