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Trademarking a spokesperson or character
Posted by Anonymous . updated on 2/26/2009
I work for a small video production company and we developed a character for a customers Television ads. We have severed the tie with the client and have what we consider an interesting problem. The character is viable and could be used for a different client. Our contract states that we own the rights to this character. Should we and can we trademark, license or copyright this character? And do we need to in order to send a cease and dissist letter to our former client who is still running the ads we have all ready made for him? Long question sorry and thanks in advance.
Answers (4)
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VideoGuy
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Sorry did not realize I might be in the wrong forum.
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JSonnab...
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"Licensing" the character is not relevant here. There may be copyrightable aspects to the character. If so, registering your copyright might not be a bad idea.
As for trademark rights, in short, you'd have to be using the character in connection with specific goods and/or services for it to act as a trademark. If you are, registering the trademark would be advisable, in my opinion.
You can speak to a lawyer directly to go over the specifics.
- Jeff
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VideoGuy
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So in order to get the former client to stop using the character we should copyright the character? I think this is what you are saying. I am kinda a legal dope. Thanks for your help.
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JSonnab...
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Whether or not the former customer has rights to continue use of the character depends in large part on the agreement between you and that customer in connection with the services you previously provided. It's mostly a contract issue that I was addressing in my earlier posts.
As for "copyrighting" the character, if it's a creative work, which I believe it probably is, then it's already "copyrighted". The question is who owns what rights under the copyright.
You might consider speaking directly to a lawyer to go over this, if the matter is serious enough to you.
- Jeff
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