A client is wanting an Apple iMac depicted on his site. He’s not a
reseller of macs, just wants the association of screen clips over an
iMac for his product shots. I’ve told him he can’t simply use copied
photos from google as he does not have rights to use them. Apple just
might take a bite at a later date if he does. Although I’m sure these
shots are all over the web on loads of sites. As it’s a business it
needs to be correct.
My question; If I illustrate an iMac with no apple logo as a new
artwork has Apple still got copyright over something that looks like
an iMac?
If you illustrate, or if you take an original photo of a Mac, then Apple has no claim, unless you explicitly made it appear as though they were promoting you. They can’t claim ownership of your art if it depicts a product they sold to you.
On a side note a local car dealer called Applecare (with Apple logo) strangely changing it recently ~ His sign/graphics guy must have been a PC user and was unable to realise the connection.
David
On 21 Feb 2010, at 22:20, waltd wrote:
If you illustrate, or if you take an original photo of a Mac, then Apple has no claim, unless you explicitly made it appear as though they were promoting you. They can’t claim ownership of your art if it depicts a product they sold to you.
If you illustrate, or if you take an original photo of a Mac, then Apple has no claim, unless you explicitly made it appear as though they were promoting you. They can’t claim ownership of your art if it depicts a product they sold to you.
Right, but for that to stick at all, you would need to be in the
business of designing and manufacturing computers, or went out of your
way to imply a recommendation by Apple of your product through your
use of an image of their computer design.
Walter
On Mar 2, 2010, at 12:54 PM, Bucky Edgett wrote:
On 21 Feb 2010, 9:21 pm, waltd wrote:
If you illustrate, or if you take an original photo of a Mac, then
Apple has no claim, unless you explicitly made it appear as though
they were promoting you. They can’t claim ownership of your art if
it depicts a product they sold to you.
Hmmm. So, when Sony Electronics sued Sony Florendo over the use of their trademark, what was Ms. Florendo doing with it? The context has no bearing anymore on rights. That might have been the case a hundred years ago, and of course is the lip-service rationale for trademark and copyright: to protect against loss of income to immediate, business-similar competitors.
If you also read the first few paragraphs of the Apple page, you see that they claim to have pretty much absolute control over any use of their trademarks (which include trade dress.) I’ll bet you ten bucks Apple would win a suit if they claimed trademark violation in the situation David has hypothesized.
Now, whether they’d ever notice such a page is a different question. But if they did, they could sue and win. Probably at first they’d just issue a cease and desist.
Now here’s an interesting twist. iStock.com has lots of photos of logoless Macs. (Many of them with clipping paths added. Neato!) Buy one for $15, and let iStock worry about trademark infringement!
Thanks Bucky. That clears the issue up. Taking a shot or drawing an iMac with no logo creating another artwork should be OK as the iStock examples which is a quicker route than illustrating from scratch.
David
On 3 Mar 2010, at 16:50, Bucky Edgett wrote:
Now here’s an interesting twist. iStock.com has lots of photos of logoless Macs. (Many of them with clipping paths added. Neato!) Buy one for $15, and let iStock worry about trademark infringement!