Movies and TV shows - copyrights and unofficial merchandise
Posted: Mon Mar 04, 2013 2:31 pm
Hi, first time poster but you may well be about to hear from me regularly. 
I work for a fairly new t-shirt printing company, that up until recently was primarily printing designs "inspired by" movies and TV shows.
Although I have no prior education in IP Law, I've read a few books and a lot of online articles about copyright and trademark law, which led to me being put in charge of auditing our catalogue in an attempt to be totally "legit". (We're not a big company, we can't afford to employ a qualified IP Law specialist)
The thing is, the more I read about it, the more confusing it all seems. Just when I think I'm right to be conservative about which products to allow, I read something like the Unofficial ABBA Clothing case, 'Elvisly Yours' Perfume case or the Spice Girls vs Panini Stickers case, and it makes me think that a lot of the designs I've recommended be taken out of our catalogue were actually perfectly fine.
As far as I understand it, copyright law protects the execution of an idea, not the idea itself, but how far does this extend?
Take the famous comic-book superhero "The Amazing Spider-Man" as an example.
Is the "idea" simply "a man that gets bitten by a spider and gets special powers", or is it "the above, who wears a red and blue skin-tight suit and can fire webs out his wrists", or "the latter, who gets called 'webslinger' by his enemies, has a slightly athletic but quite slim build, is called Peter Parker when he is out-of-character, has short dark hair, is in love with his neighbour..."
At what point does "idea" end and "execution" begin?
In terms of the t-shirt company, if we made a t-shirt called "Webslinger" of a completely original picture drawn by one of our artists, of a slim-to-athletic man wearing a red and blue skin-tight costume with a spider motif, firing webs out of his wrists as he swings from building to building... are we infringing copyright or creating our own execution of the original idea?
The Mirage Studios vs Counter Feat Clothing "ninja turtles" case would suggest that it'd be an infringement, but then the Teletubbies case would suggest otherwise.
--
On a related note, in the 1979 movie Alien, the action takes place on a space ship, the USCSS Nostromo. Would it be an infringement to make "USCSS Nostromo Flight Crew" t-shirts that didn't mention the movie at all?
On one hand I've been recommending that the company gets rid of every single design that is in any way a reference to a movie, tv show or computer game, but on the other hand, if there's scope within the law to make unofficial merchandise then I'd like to understand it properly so that the company isn't being restricted in its market by my personal lack of knowledge.
Thanks massively in advance, I realise this is a huge first post.
All the best,
Phil

I work for a fairly new t-shirt printing company, that up until recently was primarily printing designs "inspired by" movies and TV shows.
Although I have no prior education in IP Law, I've read a few books and a lot of online articles about copyright and trademark law, which led to me being put in charge of auditing our catalogue in an attempt to be totally "legit". (We're not a big company, we can't afford to employ a qualified IP Law specialist)
The thing is, the more I read about it, the more confusing it all seems. Just when I think I'm right to be conservative about which products to allow, I read something like the Unofficial ABBA Clothing case, 'Elvisly Yours' Perfume case or the Spice Girls vs Panini Stickers case, and it makes me think that a lot of the designs I've recommended be taken out of our catalogue were actually perfectly fine.
As far as I understand it, copyright law protects the execution of an idea, not the idea itself, but how far does this extend?
Take the famous comic-book superhero "The Amazing Spider-Man" as an example.
Is the "idea" simply "a man that gets bitten by a spider and gets special powers", or is it "the above, who wears a red and blue skin-tight suit and can fire webs out his wrists", or "the latter, who gets called 'webslinger' by his enemies, has a slightly athletic but quite slim build, is called Peter Parker when he is out-of-character, has short dark hair, is in love with his neighbour..."
At what point does "idea" end and "execution" begin?
In terms of the t-shirt company, if we made a t-shirt called "Webslinger" of a completely original picture drawn by one of our artists, of a slim-to-athletic man wearing a red and blue skin-tight costume with a spider motif, firing webs out of his wrists as he swings from building to building... are we infringing copyright or creating our own execution of the original idea?
The Mirage Studios vs Counter Feat Clothing "ninja turtles" case would suggest that it'd be an infringement, but then the Teletubbies case would suggest otherwise.
--
On a related note, in the 1979 movie Alien, the action takes place on a space ship, the USCSS Nostromo. Would it be an infringement to make "USCSS Nostromo Flight Crew" t-shirts that didn't mention the movie at all?
On one hand I've been recommending that the company gets rid of every single design that is in any way a reference to a movie, tv show or computer game, but on the other hand, if there's scope within the law to make unofficial merchandise then I'd like to understand it properly so that the company isn't being restricted in its market by my personal lack of knowledge.
Thanks massively in advance, I realise this is a huge first post.
All the best,
Phil