I love Elisa and confetti cakes and others like her, I'm just wondering how she can do sculpted cakes of liscensed characters? She seems to do them a lot and very publicly. Do you think companies make exceptions for big name decorators? Just wanted to know what everyone else thinks about this.

I imagine they paid for the rights to do so since they are so well known... but who knows...I know I would love to!

Some people that advertise and sell these copyright/trademark cakes do pay a fee to the originator of the design, usually several thousand dollars for the rights to advertising and selling at a profit, any trademarked or licensed or copyright protected items.
Unlicensed bakers can also apply for this right.
Remember in some areas of some states or provinces or countries, it is not illegal to bake and sell, sometimes there are limited numbers of sales allowed, sometimes as long as you do not advertise it is allowed. Sometimes selling to family and friends and such is allowed. Many restaurants farm out the baked goods to unlicensed bakers to create out of their unlicensed homes and this is also legal in many areas.
Hugs Squirrelly

I know chains and bakeries pay thousands to be able to use characters, but they are given the characters and told exactly how to place them on the cake and exactly whick background they can use. This is diffrent. She sculpts the characters or products. Go to this link then click on more cakes a couple times to see a couple of pages, you'll see what I mean.
http://www.confetticakes.com/toy1a.html

Never heard of confetti cakes (I don't search bakery sites) so thanks for the link. Her wedding cakes look like they came from Martha Stewart. Prolly why she is so popular.