Quote - We created a replica of a Cola sign, years ago and emailed Coke in regards to giving it away for free.  They responded most respectfully NO, we could not, it would be in violation of their trademark   Sharen

That sadly is the new state of businesses run by lawyers. Long ago, a businsess might have said that it would be okay to do something like that. In today's more letigious and self-centric society, things like that are rarely allowed anymore. Coke has to worry about some idiot suing them if that 3D sign is used in an inappropriate fashion. Nobody wants to take the blame if somebody somehow uses that sign in a financially successful fashion and they didn't get a cut of those earnings. That latter philosophy runs rampant in Hollywood where they'd rather lose money than let somebody else make money. Any time a studio head changes, movies in early stages of development die because the last thing the new studio head needs is a successful project started by his predecessor. Johnny Carson long lamented that NBC destroyed a warehouse of old Tonight Show tapes instead of donating them to a university or selling them. Alan Ladd, Jr. got chewed out by stockholders for giving away merchandising rights to Star Wars in trade of pouring more money into the movie to finish it. Stockholders didn't care that the movie made them more money than they'd seen in a long time--there were pissed that somebody else made more money than they thought should get it even though there was no reason, at the time, to expect that giving away toy rights meant anything.

Today, most companies look at a bottom line for every action and allowing somebody to give away a 3D replica of their history doesn't benefit them tangibly, so they won't let it happen. This is the byproduct of using the legal system to enact social change. Society becomes risk adverse. When every action has to be analzyed by what is the worst that can happen, it becomes better to not allow anything to happen. A lot of communities will no longer develop or support free parks and playgrounds because the risk of being sued, by somebody getting hurt, is so great that it's not worth the benevolent act.