Will you get into trouble if you do the peripheral stuff like the exact strawberry from the Strawberry Shortcake products, or the exact mask from Batman or the headband from Wonderwoman? There's probably better examples, but can't think of them right now.
What a discussion! This has seriously made me think of cake decorating & design concept in a whole new way. I had planned to do a spiderman cake for a co-worker of mine. I was going to make the cake shaped as spiderman's head and mold with fondant to replicate spiderman's mask and the cake base was going to be a web. Now that idea is thrown out because of all this! AH! Now what do I do? 
I have a question on this subject for anyone who might know. The cake shop I go to sells edible images. She orders them from a supplier so I'm assuming they have the copyrights for them. If I purchase the edible image am I buying the copyright and able to legally sell the cake. I understand the pan thing you can't do because you can use it multiple times, but wouldn't an edible image be just like a toy since you can only use it once?
There are many cake websites that have all kinds of copyrighted images on them. I don't see how they get by with it.
I made a Tinkerbell cake this week for a friend. I bought the candle and put it on top of the cake.
Would this have been legal to sell? I didn't charge for it. I'm just curious.
As far as edible imags and candles and such that you buy, you can sell them on a cake because the manufacturer of that item has already paid the royalty to whatever company.
I have also heard that you can use some sports logos as long as you clearly display that the item is not an officially lisenced product, but I am not positive.
I think I may have come up with a way around all of this anyway. If you can GIVE away a cake using someone's copyrighted item, then GIVE your customer their cake and charge them $28.99 for the box. 
[quote="eiyapet"]
I think I may have come up with a way around all of this anyway. If you can GIVE away a cake using someone's copyrighted item, then GIVE your customer their cake and charge them $28.99 for the box. [/quote
Sorry, that is not an original idea.
Sorry again, no, it doesn't work that way. You accepted money from them and they got a copyrighted design. It doesn't make any difference what you claim to be selling them or giving them for free.
The cake pan issue....you pay for the pan one time. You could bake and sell hundreds of cakes from that same pan. The original price would hardly pay the royalties for that many cakes.
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Ok. I was with you until here. It just reminds me of the whole copy a DVD argument right there. It costs how much to produce a pan and HOW much to sell it??? I don't know about pans in particular, but in CD terms it costs $50,000 to produce a CD and $20 to buy it. You can't possibly tell me that I should pay the $5,000 to buy the rights to use a pan (what it would cost our church to show a Disney movie to the kids, seriously), to make $50 a cake. Particularly as a home-baker. There are some legalities that just simply blow my mind, and I have a feeling that there would be a sympathetic judge out there for you.... but do you have the bucks to try it out??? Ok. some of my thoughts are a bit hard to follow, but I still stick with my ENTIRE argument!
I have to jump in. There are a lot of falsehoods being thrown around here.
You CAN sell cakes with a plastic Tinkerbelle or other licenced characters.
There is something called the First Sale Doctrine. It states that once the copyright owner puts a copyrighted item into the stream of commerce by selling it, he has exhausted his exclusive statuary right to control it distribution.
This was decided in a unanimous decision by the Supreme Court in the case of QUALITY KING DISTRIBUTORS, INC. v. L'ANZA RESEARCH INT'L, INC.
Just because Disney and other companies tell you that they will sue doesn't mean that they have a leg to stand on.
There was a case where Disney tried to have items made from Disney fabrics removed from a website. The owner of the site filed a lawsuit against Disney in Federal court. Disney quickly settled and the website owner is still happily selling Disney products.
All of this is provable if anyone is interested. I can show you the cases.
Ok. I was with you until here. It just reminds me of the whole copy a DVD argument right there. It costs how much to produce a pan and HOW much to sell it??? I don't know about pans in particular, but in CD terms it costs $50,000 to produce a CD and $20 to buy it. You can't possibly tell me that I should pay the $5,000 to buy the rights to use a pan (what it would cost our church to show a Disney movie to the kids, seriously), to make $50 a cake.
That's not the point whatsoever. You are looking at it in a very very small view. It has nothing to do with how much it cost them vs. how much they are making off of it. It's about it's THEIR intellectual property.
Just like what I charge for a cake has NOTHING to do with how much the ingredients cost .... the bulk of what I charge is my time and talent. So for someone to look at our ingredient cost alone and determine what THEY think should be charged for a cake is ludicrous and every one of you would agree with that.
You're looking at YOU making "A" $50 cake. Now multiply that times the 100,000 cake decorators across the country ... each of them making just 10 cakes from that pan. That's 1 million cakes ..... or 900,000 cakes that were made for free with no compensation to the person who created/designed the character. The point isn't that the cake was made from multiple uses of the same PAN .... the point is that potentially 900,000 cakers made money off of the Mickey Mouse character and Disney didnt' get monetary compensation for the use of THEIR creation.
If you were the person who made/designed the pan/character, you'd be seeing it the right way.
And no, I DON'T believe a "sympathethic" judge would see it that way. His "feelings" have nothing to do with how the law is applied. That's why they are judges .... they look at the law and make decisions based on the law ... not on their fe-e-e-e-e-e-lings.
This is the part of this argument that really irritates me. It's the law. This is how it works. But just because someone either disagrees with it, or doesn't understand it, well then it turns into a discussion on "since I dont' agree with it, then I don't have to follow it and I'm going to do whatever I want". (stomp foot, stick out bottom lip)
I disagree with some of the logic on wearing food safety gloves. That doesn't mean I can just ignore the HD rules about wearing them. It's the rule and that's why we wear them.
Following the rules and the laws is what makes us a civilized society.
I would imagine that if any of Disney's lawyers contacted any of us about a copyright issue we would all immediately stop doing it out of fear if nothing else.
I'm sure that's all it would take to scare us.
I am fully aware that you cannot legally do that, and I think that most people are. The
was meant to show that I was joking, perhaps in the future I should just type that I am just joking...
I got your joke, and it made me laugh!
I have to say one thing about thee couple that is getting sued from Disney. I know them personally. They are from Miami but moved to Clermont which is about 4 hours away and right near by Orlando. They moved their for a better life for them and their 2 kids (who are both under the age of 3). They are struggling to get by and I think it's riduculous what Disney is doing. These people have no money and what does Disney expect to get from them? Their food stamps??? Sorry, but this hit close to home.
Ana
Somebody has got to explain to me how Charm City Cakes openly replicates mascots and logos of professional sports teams so frequently.
I have done cakes for companies/universities with a trademarked logo. If they call and order a cake, I get a legal document stating that I am allowed to reproduce their logo for the sole purpose of their cake. I can do it that one time, but cannot do it for anyone else. I can display the pictures on my website with "Used with permission by..."
Also, some people buy the rights to use certain logos. A woodcrafter that is in my co-op makes lots of licensed logo work and is well known around the country. He purchases rights to each and every logo. I have never asked him about the cost, but I may the next time we are together. I have heard a customer come in and ask if he has baseball bat with a particular team's logo and he will say "no, but I can look into it for you, but the licensing process can take a while sometimes."
Ana, I can certainly sympathize with the situation, but I dont' believe that "rich" people have to obey the laws but "poor" people can do whatever they want.
How do you respond to the guy who grows a little marijuana to earn a little extra money on the side "just to feed his kids"? Do you come down on the big bad police dept who who busts the guy for doing something illegal? Gosh, the poor guy is just struggling to get by and he's not selling it to kids! What's the big deal? Right? 
The law is the law and it's the same for everybody.
I cannot believe anyone would honestly say, "Well, it's ok for them to use Disney characters because they don't have much money, but Debi, you seem to have money (which, for the record, I DON'T) so we're going to fine you up the whazoo for doing the same thing."
I don't think you really believe that.
There's a thread right now that's getting really heated just because some lady posted just a lousy PICTURE of some CC'ers cakes on her website and gave the impression that YOUR artistic creation was done by HER. OMG, that seems to be the biggest sin in the world (and it happened to me, so I'm not trivializing it at all. I think it's wrong.)
But let Disney or any other company do the exact same thing and you label them all as bad guys. It would be nice if there were consistent values being tossed around here.
I'm with you 100% Debi.. the law is the law and that is that. And I don't know for certain because I am not acopyright lawyer, but I wouldn't think that Disney or whom ever wouldn't have a leg to stand on if you were selling decorated cakes using the character pans. It's different than placing toys on cakes.. you have to actually re-create the character in icing on the cake. I could see them not having any gripe if you sold a naked cake, but that's not what is going on.
It's about protecting the image of their characters.. and their investment in creating that character. I wish I had the resources to contact a copyright lawyer and pick their brain about it all.
Again, you can sell a cake made with a licensed Wilton character pan. The end product is not trademarked, you are using the pan for what it was intended. You are not allowed to market it as a licensed Mickey Mouse, Bird Bird, etc, cake.
Yes, the law is the law. I see a lot of anecdotal evidence being thrown around but I want someone to cite the federal statute to back up their claim.
I used to be pretty paranoid about this issue... but the more I look around at all the "big" designers' websites and the more "violations" I see thereon, the less inclined I am to worry about getting sued.
Frankly, I'd welcome a lawsuit so that this issue can be put to rest permanently. And think of all the exposure my business would get! LOL!
Again, you can sell a cake made with a licensed Wilton character pan. The end product is not trademarked, you are using the pan for what it was intended.
Actually the "intended" use is not for the commercial baker (as it clearly states), but for the home baker to make for home use.
I'd also like to see something cited that says you can use them. I personally find them tacky, but if people want them and you CAN make them whatever right? I just don't want to see someone taking this as law and getting burned for it.
I like to play it safe.. so I don't do anything licensed. I will happily make a cake to coordinate with any theme, but I will not provide you with the character.
I refuse to use cheap, plastic toys. I hate them. They are just too "grocery store" for me - and I want to set myself apart from all that. At the same time though, I still want to make my customers happy... what option does that leave me?
As I stated previously, all the "big names" are doing it and I don't see any of them getting sued... in fact, they proudly post the pics on their websites. It really makes me wonder how "illegal" it is - after all, if there was any threat of a lawsuit or fine, wouldn't their lawyers warn them about it?
Again, you can sell a cake made with a licensed Wilton character pan. The end product is not trademarked, you are using the pan for what it was intended.
Actually the "intended" use is not for the commercial baker (as it clearly states), but for the home baker to make for home use.
If this is what is written on the pan then it's a very vague wishy washy statement.
My riding lawn mower has "Not for commercial use" written on it. I think it's safe to assume that the manufacturer didn't have copyright issues in mind when they put this on there. I would imagine that they are saying that the machine is not intended to stand up to the rigors of daily use. Isn't it possible that Wilton is saying the same thing? You have to admit these pans are not exactly heavy duty.
A note from Wilton Enterprises on copyright issues
LICENSING GUIDELINES ON PRODUCT USE
All licensed character shaped cake pans, candy molds and cookie cutters are for consumer home use only. Stores/shops cannot make cakes, cookies or candies from our licensed products and sell them to consumers. These "mold making items" are strictly prohibited for any type of commercial use since the licensor has neither the method to control the quality of the reproduction of the character nor the ability to earn royalties on sales of the "finished" product. This applies to both baked and craft type products.
Free-hand or copied character designs cannot be drawn or iced on top of a cake, cupcakes, or cookies and sold for any type of commercial purpose.
Once again, the licensor cannot control the quality and is not earning a royalty on the product created around their character.
Licensed pans cannot be rented to consumers by stores since the licensor is not earning a royalty from the transaction.
Generally, creating any type of image that looks like a licensed character that is sold for commercial purposes is prohibited unless there is a specific licensing agreement with the licensor for that product and royalties are paid each time the product is sold.
A note from Wilton Enterprises on copyright issues
LICENSING GUIDELINES ON PRODUCT USE
All licensed character shaped cake pans, candy molds and cookie cutters are for consumer home use only. Stores/shops cannot make cakes, cookies or candies from our licensed products and sell them to consumers. These "mold making items" are strictly prohibited for any type of commercial use since the licensor has neither the method to control the quality of the reproduction of the character nor the ability to earn royalties on sales of the "finished" product. This applies to both baked and craft type products.
Free-hand or copied character designs cannot be drawn or iced on top of a cake, cupcakes, or cookies and sold for any type of commercial purpose.
Once again, the licensor cannot control the quality and is not earning a royalty on the product created around their character.
Licensed pans cannot be rented to consumers by stores since the licensor is not earning a royalty from the transaction.
Generally, creating any type of image that looks like a licensed character that is sold for commercial purposes is prohibited unless there is a specific licensing agreement with the licensor for that product and royalties are paid each time the product is sold.
Thank you for posting this. I have never seen this exact statement and it is very straightforward!! 
I was very intrigued by the comment I put in bold above about the renting of pans. I have tons of shaped pans that different people have given me over the years, and I don't use them, so I had debated renting them like I have read about before, but it looks like that is a no-no!! E-bay here I come!
I knew a cake supply store years and years ago who would "sell" the pan to the customer .... the customer would use and then return the pan and the lady would charge a "restocking fee" for the return.
Ya ain't kiddin' me ... she was renting the pans .... but she would tell you 'Nope ... it's a sale. If the customer changes their mind and returns it, I'm charging a restocking fee for the time it takes me to do the return paperwork." 
From what I can find on the copyright websites, the First Sale Doctrine covers the pan itself, not items that were made with the pan. The copyright owner still has the right to control copies that are made. Just because you buy the pan it doesn't give you the right to sell the cakes, it just gives you the right to resell the pan when you're done with it without fear of being prosecuted for selling a copyrighted item. I assume that means that you'd have the right to resell the little plastic figures, since you wouldn't be altering them or making copies of them.
The first sale information that I found was mostly related to books and recordings, so look at it this way...If you buy a CD you can lend it to a friend and/or sell it on ebay when you're done with it. If you start making copies of it and selling them on ebay, though, that isn't legal.
I'm not an attorney, but that's what I found, so if any copyright attorneys want to correct me please feel free!
If cartoonists can draw licensed characters (other than their own) and sell that work, then why can't I?
I'll just call all my work "parody" and be within the law. 
Taken from legal website:
Conclusion
The importance of the Acuff-Rose case, even though segments of the case were remanded for further findings was that the Supreme Court reached the unequivocal conclusion that a parody falls within the scope of the fair-use defense.
Wondering about cookies. I've seen some decorated similar (not exactly like) to Wizard of Oz characters---you have a girl in a gingham dress, a lion, a scarecrow, a tin man & a dog---they are all separate cookies. how does that play in? And then is something like a "yellow hat" like in Curious George copyrighted (e.g. could you make a yellow hat & monkey cookies)? Then I've seen red cakes w/ 1/2 ball & 2 ears (suggests Mickey) or a red cake w/ white polka dots & then a black bow on top (suggests Minnie). So, how does this play in?
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