Copywrite/Clearance Issues for furniture
March 6, 2019 11:12 AM Subscribe
Say I'm working on a movie. And I find a chair online like this.
As long as we won't sell it, can we make a couple and catch them on camera? Is it possible to copywrite an object like that?
the world is full of Eames and barcelona knock offs and I don't recall needing clearance to shoot those.
Anyone who has any insight would be welcomed.
the world is full of Eames and barcelona knock offs and I don't recall needing clearance to shoot those.
Anyone who has any insight would be welcomed.
from some cursory googling, it REALLY REALLY sounds like the legality of the reproduction would depend on the venue, and even then, it sounds like the burden would be on the furniture maker, not the film-maker.
now, your bigger issue with something like the Feichtner would be making the damn thing at all. good metal bending is not easy.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 11:48 AM on March 6, 2019
now, your bigger issue with something like the Feichtner would be making the damn thing at all. good metal bending is not easy.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 11:48 AM on March 6, 2019
I am not a lawyer. I do work in the legal department of an entertainment company (not dealing with this type of clearance issue directly). In the past, I have worked in the art department, which deals directly with this type of question a lot.
It really, really depends on the chair. Some furniture is, indeed, under trademark in a way that it would probably not be advisable to use onscreen without written permission. This chair is distinctive enough that it might be one of those.
The reality though, is threefold:
Firstly, unless your movie is about an evil psychopathic serial killer who also makes these chairs (or is depicted as working for this chair manufacturer), or who kills people who are innocently sitting in these chairs going about their day, most likely the company would absolutely grant permission for this. There are standard boilerplate clearance agreement templates out there you can get -- or they may have something they prefer to use -- and it's usually the matter of a few phone calls. It would be exceedingly rare that they would want money or that they would make a blanket dismissal. Though they probably will want to read the script or the part of the script where their chair is going to come into play. Companies clear things like this all the time; it's a routine part of doing business if you own IP of this nature. If it's a larger company, you should contact them either through their "media inquiries" contact info or call and ask to speak to their legal department (if they're big enough to have one).
Secondly, if you are planning to make your own chair, then it's not their chair. Just make it different enough that it's clearly not the same chair or a knockoff of the chair that could be mistaken for their IP in any way. You wouldn't have to clear something just for being kind of similar to something else that exists out there in the world. (It's probably cheaper to rent the real thing, assuming you're not a professional chair fabricator or something?)
Thirdly, if this is a homegrown little indie movie made by a small group of amateurs, which realistically nobody is going to see, anyway, it probably doesn't matter all that much and you shouldn't bother with any of this. The only way this could be a little complicated is if you plan to take the film to festivals, because, hey, who knows, maybe it will win a huge festival award and become the talk of Sundance and then get acquired by someone and distributed more widely. And then someone at the furniture company comes into work one day and says, "I was Netflix And Chilling this weekend, and you'll never guess where one of our chairs turned up...", and that could potentially lead to some problems if the makers of this chair are litigious assholes. That said, if your movie gets legitimately bought by some huge entertainment company, their legal department can probably make this sort of problem go away. You would get taken to task for not getting clearance, but nobody would die. It would be an expensive oversight, that's all. (Also if this happens you should have this question taken down, for sure.)
On the off chance that, as mumimor says, you are making the next Bond movie, you should call Studio Legal immediately and see what they recommend. Or just read your production manual.
posted by the milkman, the paper boy at 11:51 AM on March 6, 2019 [6 favorites]
It really, really depends on the chair. Some furniture is, indeed, under trademark in a way that it would probably not be advisable to use onscreen without written permission. This chair is distinctive enough that it might be one of those.
The reality though, is threefold:
Firstly, unless your movie is about an evil psychopathic serial killer who also makes these chairs (or is depicted as working for this chair manufacturer), or who kills people who are innocently sitting in these chairs going about their day, most likely the company would absolutely grant permission for this. There are standard boilerplate clearance agreement templates out there you can get -- or they may have something they prefer to use -- and it's usually the matter of a few phone calls. It would be exceedingly rare that they would want money or that they would make a blanket dismissal. Though they probably will want to read the script or the part of the script where their chair is going to come into play. Companies clear things like this all the time; it's a routine part of doing business if you own IP of this nature. If it's a larger company, you should contact them either through their "media inquiries" contact info or call and ask to speak to their legal department (if they're big enough to have one).
Secondly, if you are planning to make your own chair, then it's not their chair. Just make it different enough that it's clearly not the same chair or a knockoff of the chair that could be mistaken for their IP in any way. You wouldn't have to clear something just for being kind of similar to something else that exists out there in the world. (It's probably cheaper to rent the real thing, assuming you're not a professional chair fabricator or something?)
Thirdly, if this is a homegrown little indie movie made by a small group of amateurs, which realistically nobody is going to see, anyway, it probably doesn't matter all that much and you shouldn't bother with any of this. The only way this could be a little complicated is if you plan to take the film to festivals, because, hey, who knows, maybe it will win a huge festival award and become the talk of Sundance and then get acquired by someone and distributed more widely. And then someone at the furniture company comes into work one day and says, "I was Netflix And Chilling this weekend, and you'll never guess where one of our chairs turned up...", and that could potentially lead to some problems if the makers of this chair are litigious assholes. That said, if your movie gets legitimately bought by some huge entertainment company, their legal department can probably make this sort of problem go away. You would get taken to task for not getting clearance, but nobody would die. It would be an expensive oversight, that's all. (Also if this happens you should have this question taken down, for sure.)
On the off chance that, as mumimor says, you are making the next Bond movie, you should call Studio Legal immediately and see what they recommend. Or just read your production manual.
posted by the milkman, the paper boy at 11:51 AM on March 6, 2019 [6 favorites]
somehow I didn't link this article above
The relevant part, after a LOT of semi-anguished talk about patents and copyrights, is this:
Copyright law, like all other forms of intellectual property law, is infested with terminology, interpretations and exceptions crafted by courts and lawmakers over many years. There is therefore no substitute for consulting a qualified lawyer if you suspect your commercial activity will lead anywhere near another’s copyright.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 11:55 AM on March 6, 2019
The relevant part, after a LOT of semi-anguished talk about patents and copyrights, is this:
Copyright law, like all other forms of intellectual property law, is infested with terminology, interpretations and exceptions crafted by courts and lawmakers over many years. There is therefore no substitute for consulting a qualified lawyer if you suspect your commercial activity will lead anywhere near another’s copyright.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 11:55 AM on March 6, 2019
Have you seen Lindsay Ellis's video on Product Placement and Fair Use? It might be helpful as an overview.
posted by Lexica at 12:14 PM on March 6, 2019
posted by Lexica at 12:14 PM on March 6, 2019
It should be noted that what you are talking about is not product placement, unless you were hoping to either get free chairs from the company for use on camera, or perhaps to get money from them to fund your project as a sort of "branded content" type of arrangement.
Product placement is much more complicated than clearing a chair (that you already have access to) for use. The latter is typically a couple of phone calls and some paperwork to sign and scan. The former can also be negotiated depending on what you want and what their company policies are, but is almost certainly not necessary in your case.
You don't have to have a product placement deal in place in order to use trademarked items on camera. You can (and if that's what you're actually asking about, there's no reason not to), but you can also just settle for getting permission to show their trademarked item on camera.
posted by the milkman, the paper boy at 1:45 PM on March 6, 2019
Product placement is much more complicated than clearing a chair (that you already have access to) for use. The latter is typically a couple of phone calls and some paperwork to sign and scan. The former can also be negotiated depending on what you want and what their company policies are, but is almost certainly not necessary in your case.
You don't have to have a product placement deal in place in order to use trademarked items on camera. You can (and if that's what you're actually asking about, there's no reason not to), but you can also just settle for getting permission to show their trademarked item on camera.
posted by the milkman, the paper boy at 1:45 PM on March 6, 2019
The simplest way is to just call the artist/designer and ask. I doubt you want to do it under the radar anyways (way uncool), so this would be the quickest way to know about the particular item.
posted by MountainDaisy at 1:58 PM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by MountainDaisy at 1:58 PM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
As long as you’re not claiming in the film that it’s a genuine Feichtner chair, of course you can get a craftsman to build you a couple. Frankly, it’s probably cheaper to rent knockoffs from prop houses.
Lindsay Ellis doesn’t know much about Fair Use.
posted by Ideefixe at 2:38 PM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
Lindsay Ellis doesn’t know much about Fair Use.
posted by Ideefixe at 2:38 PM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
Creating an unauthorized knockoff of the design seems like the legally problematic part, not the filming. There are countries where artists retain downstream rights to control the display of their art, but in the US it tends to get curtailed by first sale doctrine in addition to fair use, and I've never heard of it being a problem. (Doesn't mean it's not, but you see a lot of Eames chairs in film, and I doubt they're paying anything to Eames every time.)
In fact, Eames has a whole page for Licensing & Permissions. But what they are licensing are specific photos and video of Eames products, like if you'd like to use a stock shot of them in a book/magazine/whatever. They're not going around trying to collect royalties if you have an Eames chair (that you legally acquired) in a film, from what I can tell.
The application of US copyright law to furniture is itself complex; there's a separation between the "functional" part of the design and the "artistic" or sculptural part of the design. The functional design is not protected (though I suppose it could be patented, e.g. many folding chairs were originally), but the artistic part is.
And that's where I'd be concerned about your legal exposure, if I were you: hiring someone to make a knockoff of a recognizable design could infringe their copyright on the artistic/sculptural aspect of the design. And it seems like you'd be hard-pressed to claim it's purely an issue of functional design, when you're specifically commissioning someone to build a chair of a specific design, instead of using any old (perfectly functional) chair.
Obviously the safe bet is to get a few hours of an IP lawyer's time, and I expect they'd tell you you need permission from the designer, but I'd probably save the money and just rent actual designer furniture rather than commission someone to make an unauthorized knockoff.
posted by Kadin2048 at 3:08 PM on March 6, 2019
In fact, Eames has a whole page for Licensing & Permissions. But what they are licensing are specific photos and video of Eames products, like if you'd like to use a stock shot of them in a book/magazine/whatever. They're not going around trying to collect royalties if you have an Eames chair (that you legally acquired) in a film, from what I can tell.
The application of US copyright law to furniture is itself complex; there's a separation between the "functional" part of the design and the "artistic" or sculptural part of the design. The functional design is not protected (though I suppose it could be patented, e.g. many folding chairs were originally), but the artistic part is.
And that's where I'd be concerned about your legal exposure, if I were you: hiring someone to make a knockoff of a recognizable design could infringe their copyright on the artistic/sculptural aspect of the design. And it seems like you'd be hard-pressed to claim it's purely an issue of functional design, when you're specifically commissioning someone to build a chair of a specific design, instead of using any old (perfectly functional) chair.
Obviously the safe bet is to get a few hours of an IP lawyer's time, and I expect they'd tell you you need permission from the designer, but I'd probably save the money and just rent actual designer furniture rather than commission someone to make an unauthorized knockoff.
posted by Kadin2048 at 3:08 PM on March 6, 2019
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posted by mumimor at 11:27 AM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]