Advice on image rights and brands

Mark M · 21 Jan 2013 at 13:14

I have a pie in the sky idea that will involve selling items such as pictures/photos of prominent figures and landmarks etc. some of the people will have image rights associated with them and some things may include prominent brands/logos such as a bottle of bud for instance.

Is it possible to use images along those lines or do they have to be licenced from the owner?

I know the above is vague but don't want to give everything away in case some of it is feasible.

Thanks

memyselfandi · 21 Jan 2013 at 13:18

I would expect that you would have to license them in some way as you are using the images containing the trademarked items in a commercial manner.

mothermachine · 21 Jan 2013 at 13:24

Of course you can't sell IP containing other, trademarked IP, without permission/a deal with the owner of said IP.

Mark M · 21 Jan 2013 at 13:38

It's a bit of a tricky one, Im not suggesting selling a poster of just a bottle of jack for example, I know that would have to have the correct rights. How would it stand to sell, for example, an item with a picture of Wembley stadium?

mothermachine · 21 Jan 2013 at 13:41

Mark M said:
It's a bit of a tricky one, Im not suggesting selling a poster of just a bottle of jack for example, I know that would have to have the correct rights. How would it stand to sell, for example, an item with a picture of Wembley stadium?

Some buildings are copyrighted in themselves, in other words you will need permission to sell a photo of the building - good example is the Tour Eiffel at night/dusk - the light display is copyrighted so you need permission to sell photos of it at night. Bizarre but the way it is. And it's even stricter in some other cases.

You'll need to get permission from everyone, basically.

ince · 21 Jan 2013 at 13:43

Mark M said:
It's a bit of a tricky one, Im not suggesting selling a poster of just a bottle of jack for example, I know that would have to have the correct rights. How would it stand to sell, for example, an item with a picture of Wembley stadium?

You will need rights of all the parties

D.P. · 21 Jan 2013 at 14:21

Mark M said:
I have a pie in the sky idea that will involve selling items such as pictures/photos of prominent figures and landmarks etc. some of the people will have image rights associated with them and some things may include prominent brands/logos such as a bottle of bud for instance.

Is it possible to use images along those lines or do they have to be licenced from the owner?

I know the above is vague but don't want to give everything away in case some of it is feasible.

Thanks

You will have to license the photo from the photographer first of all, the rest partly depends what you are doing, you may need model releases.

Mark M · 21 Jan 2013 at 14:24

D.P. said:
You will have to license the photo from the photographer first of all, the rest partly depends what you are doing, you may need model releases.

Most, if not all, of the photos would be taken by me but happy to purchase the rights to any photos I needed. It was more just to do with the legals on image rights/IP I wanted to check but not sure its going to be feasible, which is probably why no one has done this idea already!

grumpysculler · 21 Jan 2013 at 16:26

How is what you propose different to traditional (or even micro) stock photography?

Mark M · 21 Jan 2013 at 16:28

Because the idea is a product that uses the photos/image on/in them