Forum: MarketPlace Customers


Subject: legal aspect of 3d objects regarding brands and designs

lsauvage opened this issue on Jan 24, 2021 ยท 5 posts


lsauvage posted Sun, 24 January 2021 at 3:42 AM

Hello, i hope i'm in the right place for asking that;

Is there a legal notice of what can be done or not in the world of 3d modeling of real objects, for free, for selling ?

I think we cannot propose a T shirt in a store with a famous sports wear logo on it. For design, i suppose we cannot sell a copy of a real product / car / fridge etc ? I'm not really sure where the prejudice is as it's free advertising, but they own the rights, so i can't. Is this right ?
Can i sell a morph of la femme who makes her like a real famous people ? I believe no.

thanks you for links, advices...


antje posted Sun, 24 January 2021 at 12:42 PM

Hello, I am not a copyright expert but there are a few things that should be obvious :) Logos and Brands are all copyright protected, so they can not be used for resale purposes. Ie the Nike logo on a 3d t-shirt. I'm not sure if a fridge or car design is copyright protected, but I'm kind of doubting that since there a plenty of fridges and 3d cars out there for sale. Creating a look-a-like morph of a famous person for 3d characters is ok too, since nobody actually has a copyright or patent for their face or body.

I hope that helped.

Antje


lsauvage posted Mon, 25 January 2021 at 10:35 AM

Thank you for your answer, Yes, it helps, you confirmed mostly what i thought.


forester posted Wed, 27 January 2021 at 5:27 PM

About cars and frdiges - the designs of actual cars and fridges are indeed copyrighted. Every once in a while, the big companies go after all the 3d modellers who are copying their works. Either take-down orders or out-and-out, financial penalties for doing this.



yaugt posted Thu, 30 June 2022 at 4:36 AM

I'm no expert either, but my understanding is that it is in fact copyrighted and you need permission (read as pay) for use and whether or not you can profit from such usage (the company will want a piece of that cake too). For 3d characters resembling real people, I think the likeness of a person is also protected. However, a company may choose not do go after people using their brand if the usage does not affect them in a negative way. In fact some companies may see it as free promotion. But is always better to play it safe and don't take the risk.

Example.

Say a person creates a 3d render (or any art really) of a happy family having fun at the beach and one of the kids happen to be drinking coca cola. However Coca Cola is not even the focus of the render, might as well could have been Pepsi or whatever. The image is a very well done render and sets a nice tone family oriented and it becomes quite popular, including its creator. The person keep getting famous with more creations and keeps the gimmick of using coca cola every now and then in their renders. All happy positive art. Coca Cola may choose to remain silent and don't do anything about it, because is free promotion and does no harm to the company. 

Well, it turns out the creator was accused of *insert crime here* and is found guilty. Now Coca Cola could see this as a negative impact for their brand and may want to protect their image and disassociate themselves from this person and can sue the person for unauthorised use of their logo.

That's just one of example of an infinite possibilities.