I would really like to know how to get permission to use a character on a cake. I looked all over the disney site and can't find a thing.

Has anyone researched this? I want to find out exactly how much in royalties you must pay to put a character on a cake. If I find anything out I'll share my findings here.

Thanks!
-Krissy

Contact Wilton, or maybe Walt Disney with your question. I am sure any royalty associated with a Disney Character is not going to be cheap.

You can put any character you want on a cake, as far as I know. What you can't do is use a shaped character pan to make a cake for sale. I believe that's where the copyright infringement comes in, not if you make a cake 'in the likeness of' or scupt a figure of a character from fondant, etc. or pipe one onto a cake or something. If I'm wrong, someone please correct me.

Im currently trying to get certiefied for OU and OSU and OMG it is HARD!!!!!! They have to apporve the product you are making .. certified letters back and forth and can't count the number of times I have traveled to meet with Lawyer to get licensed.. I 'm doing this for my candles so I dont know if it would be the same for cakes or not.... It has been ongoing for 6 months not so it is a VERY frustrating task, BUT once licensed it will be very rewarding!!! (I Hope) I did find this out tho ... If you do use a copyright product and are caught they can confensgate all your product without any notice. Colleges are very strict on this I saw a guy at one of our craft show loose everything he had because he made some Homemade Arkansas Razorback pillows that were not licensed... we were watching it... So it does happen....

The likeness is the killer. Disney has NO control over your cake, thus as far as they are concerned, you can "ruin" the reputation of Disney. by mis-representing...

Anyway, if you get ahold of Disney dont' give them any personal info. They are sticklers for "fining" high amounts of money for copyright and trrademark infringement. This includes likenesses of...

I was under the impression that even if you make a likeness of a character that is considered copyright infringement. Someone told me that if a child sees a purple dinosaur and calls him Barney, then it's Barney.

If that's the case then, I guess every cake decorator the world over needs to be looking over their shoulder. If even an 'in the likeness of' character can get you sued, and Disney is such a stickler, then why aren't people being sued left & right? I'm confused...

I guess Disney would have to know about it. I remember from a previous thread that it was said that ANY lawyer could bring suit on something like this. A lot of times you'll see bakeries do a "yellow bear" for Pooh and things like that. It would be interested to find a copywright lawyer to explain it to us.

I saw a cinderella cake at one of the ICES conventions and there was a letter next to the cake...The letter was from Disney giving the decorator permission to duplicate cinderella!! She did an outstanding job with the cake!!

I really should shut my mouth about this, because sooner otr later I'll say something someone REALLY done'st like... but ...

quote -
If that's the case then, I guess every cake decorator the world over needs to be looking over their shoulder. If even an 'in the likeness of' character can get you sued, and Disney is such a stickler, then why aren't people being sued left & right? I'm confused...


No "every" cake decorator in the world should not look over their shoulder, if they aren't doing anything wrong. That's lumping every cake decorator together, and that's certainly not fair. now in fairness, I'm sure you don't mean EVERY decorator, but if you don't, then you can't say "every".

When some child says, abotu a purple dinosaur, "BARNEY!" then tehy are making a statement like a photocopy being a Xerox, even if it came form a Ricoh Copier. it's not the same, it's a generic term. That's not fair to the people who own Barney. (Much as I hate Barney)


I really should learn to shut my mouth.

I guess the Barney point was talking about people who make a "Barney" but give him a different color nose and then say, "it's not barney, it's a purple dinosaur". I know people also try to get around it by saying they are selling the box to the customer for "X" amount of dollars and the cake is free.

Oh, and Barney is not allowed in our house!

LOL Cakeman66... You write some important things.. I hear what your saying, But you ALWAYS make me laugh.. No you shouldnt shut your mouth!! It's your opinion they asked for it.. (THEY meaning I guess anyone who asks about permission) OK I think I need to shut my mouth now!!! LOL

I guess then, if your cake will have high visibility, such as the one metioned at ICES, or if you own a bakery with multiple locations and advertise & such, then it would be something to be concerned about. But if you're just doing your 'impression' of a character, isn't there some sort of artistic liscense that protects you? People have been doing character cakes for sale, other the ones using the pans, for years & years...but I've never heard of or known anyone to be sued over it. I guess I'd better hope there are no money hungry lawyers at the party I'll be doing the 'Bratz' cupcakes for next month!! lol

I believe this topic needs more investigation. What I do not get is why do they make the pans in the first place if they do not want them sold? Surely the maker of the pans had to get permission from someone on the otherside of the fence. I guess you could put a sticker on the back of the cake board or something that reads something like "Mickey Mouse character and likiness thereof are sole property of the Walt Disney Company Inc." But then agian like I said I am no lawyer.

That's the problem Jenn. You never know.

And aren't "some" lawyers money hungry?

Anyway. the debate goes round and round, and I'm sure it will forever more here and other places. It's the old saying, when it happens to you, you'll understand more. It happened to me when I was doing Graphic Design. I sent a sample to a company and they ended up using my sample as their logo. I sued, I won, because I could back it up.

As for the pans, they specifically state, not to be sold, or for home use only... etc. Just because Wilton pays to produce teh pan, doens't mean "we've" paid the fee to re-produce it and sell it.

I am kinda curious here..I know we are supposed to NOT copy disneys cinderella..but as far as using the name cinderella..I am certain disney does NOT own that... it is a story that originated in the 1600's derived from a peasant tale that was actually a little gory and churched up by Perrault to make it more enjoyeble to readers...I am sure the blue gowned disney version is theirs...but NOT the name...Cinderella. I know the disney one is what we all grew up with and is the recognizable one that all the kiddies want. But I wouldnt be afraid to do a version of cinderella ( not copying theirs) and call it cinderella.

Here is something interesting to read...
http://www.mikerounds.com/stealin'.htm

As I really tired of this constant concern a few years ago, I contacted Disney to find out who I needed to call each time that I needed to get permission to use one of their characters on a cake.

I was on the phone for 45 minutes, being transferred from department to department (each person laughing) until I finally was transferred to the legal department that handles this (copyrights). I explained what I did, and that I was perfectly respectful of the time that goes into creating something and the need to protect that creation. I just wanted to know who I should call to get permission each time I'm asked to create a character cake. After HE stopped laughing, and begged me NOT to call each time he explained their feeling about this.

These companies realize that when they put these characters out that it is going create a desire for the image to be placed on many things. They also acknowledge that a cake is a temporary item. They only asked that we as professionals not advertise these cake creations without prior permission. This simply means not to place pictures of the character cakes in the window of your shop or your website. Don't have a picture of a character cake on your business cards, etc. You get where I'm going with this,right?

When you think about it, the request is fair. How would you feel to find a picture of one of your cake creations on someone else's website represented as their own? These companies DO NOT want to be bombarded with phone calls from decorators. Nor do they want to be portrayed as the bad guys. They're in the 'feel good' business just like we are. They just want to protect their investment.

I encourage any of you who are still operating in fear of reprisal to look up the company that holds the copyright to the image that you want to reproduce, and give them a call. Don't email them. They probably won't answer. Call. Be persistent. You'll probably be pleasantly surprised that they aren't the ogres that we'd like to think they are

Excellent info, DDiva! Thank you so much for posting your experience. Just as I thought, I couldn't imagine decorators having to get permission each time one of these types of cakes was requested by a customer. And a cake is a consumable item...not something that would be on display or mass-produced for resale that could possibly create 'competition' for the character or something. Really appreciate you sharing this with us!

That was sort of my attitude as well diva...even tho some when I expressed no big concern seemed to think me a deviant thief..lol. I DIDNT want to do something horribly wrong..but to be honest have hardly EVER even had to address this issue as I hardly EVER am asked to do character cakes. I mainly cater to the wedding crowd. And if I were a big name decorator such as collette..and advertised them in my window I would expect to be penalized. hehe...I just had an image of colette doing lil stars on a character cake..lmao.

I also found it not really a big issue and thought it hard to believe that disney was worried about my once every 6 mos character cake...that I might have made 75.00 off of..lol..heck they oughta cut me some slack on the sheer volume of times I go to disneyland and my kids both being disney freaks everything in our house is disney..lol

Making Bratz cupcakes by reproducing the image and selling them will be copyright infringement. It the company caught you, you would pay a large fine.

Making copyrighted charachters for personal use with NO exhange of money is not usually an infringement.

You could however, add a toy or plastic item to a baked item for sale.

Well, I didn't exactly say that I was reproducing their image...I'm just using star and lip shapes to place on top of the cupcakes with a little glitter added. But stars and lips are part of their 'theme' or part of their image...so is that still copyright infrigement...should I be worried? I'm not. The party is a Bratz party and the cupcakes will coordinate with that theme. Guess I'd better be careful calling them Bratz cupcakes so as not to perk up any ears of desperate lawyers out there. I seriously doubt the company would find out and if they did...well - refer the DDiva's post and you'll see why I'm not worried.

Sounds to me like DDiva has the copyright deal covered.

I don't believe in living your life in fear. So I ask questions. I have never contacted a large corporation and encountered anything but nice people.

The Internet has changed our world. There are coloring book pages all over the 'net. These are printed and distributed to children in classrooms and day care centers all over the world. Organizations have coloring contests using these pages. They are NOT all on the websites of the companies that own the copyrights. How many teachers do you think have been sued or fined for copying these coloring book and game pages?

It is, in most cases, a matter of respect. I don't think a company that creates a product intended to bring happiness to people really wants to penalize someone who makes a cake. Sure, if you're one of the dessert heavyweights, you would, or should know better. But of course, they would have no problem getting permission, funding, new pans, a new kitchen, etc, etc. from any of these companies, right?

Thanks DDiva! That is exactly the info I was looking for. As I said in my initial post I tried looking for an email address, phone number...anything to be able to contact them. I could find no contact information so I decided to ask you guys if you had any info.

Where did you find the contact information?

Thanks for your post!!
Krissy

As I recall, it took a bit of doing. I think searching the 'net gave me a location and then I worried the pants off the information operator !!

Here's a link to some info I ran across sometime ago. I was always told that the only character cake you are allowed to sell are the ones where you buy the figures and cake toppers and put them on a cake. Oh well, I do it too...

http://webmall1.com/sweetdreams/copyrules.htm

WOW, i walked in on a pretty heated debate here, I think i'll be brave and just change the character that I have to do. This town is so small, I doubt any disney, or any other "pan people" live here so I'm not going to stress...BUT if my little home business gets bigger then i'll go thru the motions. The original question posted was a very good one though, and I'm definitely glad I read all of the info that all of you found out though.
Ari