Licencing and Copyright

[clarry100]

We are wondering where one goes to find out if some kind of licence is available to sell certain products. eg Peppa Pig or Frozen products.

And then where do we go to obtain such licences/permissions to sell.

Does the ebay VERO program have a web site where such info might be available?

[joethenuts]

do you have plenty of moolah,  and pretty much have to be sold in major stores only..

[digital*ghost]

You need to contact the rights holders - many will have a formal process in place, and the costs are usually quite high (especially for something like Frozen, which is Disney - for Disney, your business needs to meet certain requirements, as do the products you intend to manufacture / sell. 

Here's some independent info specifically related to Disney:

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/license-sell-disney-characters-products-21576.html

[thecatspjs]

Disneys address in Oz is:

Australia
Licensing Proposal –
The Walt Disney Company (Australia) Pty Limited
South Yarra, Victoria, Australia 3141

Google is your friend.

Cut and paste from a cut and paste in an etsy discussion on similar topic

The Walt Disney Company is committed to the promotion and maintenance of responsible international labor practices in its licensing and direct sourcing operations throughout the world. Contracted Disney licensees are responsible for adhering to the same practices. For more information on this program, visit our corporate website.

How to Submit a Proposal
Disney licensees should meet the following requirements:
1) Your company must have a minimum of five years experience in manufacturing and distribution.
2) Your company must be a manufacturer, NOT a middleman or distributor.
3) Your company must have five years prior experience in the product category being proposed.

Please note: Meeting these qualifications in no way implies or guarantees that you will be granted a Disney license.

If your company meets the above criteria, please send us the following information:
(please note that we do not accept fax or email submissions)

Information about your company
Company name:
Company address:
Company phone number:
Executive contact:
Key executive biographies:
Past company experience in consumer products
Manufacturing:
Distribution:
Top line public financial information about your company:
Short explanation of why you want to become a Disney Licensee:
Send us your product catalog or sell sheets
Proposed product category (see below for category descriptions):
Do not send proprietary creative ideas

Divisions and Categories:
Please identify the division and categories to whom you would like to make a proposal.
Apparel, Accessories & Footwear

[clarry100]

Thanks DG, I will look at that site in detail.

The other side of this is if/when we buy stock in the form of the raw materials we will use to make up our products it will come in the form of rolls of ribbon, buttons and such like pre-printed with the characters already on it. This stuff is all made in China of course.

So somehow we will need to establish if the Chinese wholesaler is manufacturing licensed products as well. We don't want a box of stock to turn up in customs here only to have it impounded because it is not licenced but some kind of fake copy that may look real.

It's entirely possible that it all may get too hard and too expensive to do stuff like this, but I would like to study and investigate this first.

We have seen quite a bit of this kind of product selling here on ebay and ETSY so one would assume (hope) that those sellers have all the appropriate licences in place. At least on ebay they would be removed under the VERO program if they were not licenced I would think. Not too sure how ETSY handle these policies.

[pennyforum14]

Never assume, we all know what that does, lol.

There is a lot of discussion of this in the Etsy forums as well, and the general feeling is that many of the sellers of such things are NOT licensed.  Disney is a stringent defender of its rights and will take action when breaches come to its attention, but there are so many....

There is also a grey area in the legal stuff that means that the license only extends to the original sale. In other words, in the case of fabrics made with the Disney design, the manufacturers of these fabrics must have a license to use the Disney images and character names, but once the licensed fabric is produced, a craftsman who purchases it and makes it into a garment does not require a license to offer that garment for sale.  Second hand goods are also not required to prove license status (going by what was stated in a post in the Etsy forums by a copyright lawyer awhile back, and that is in the US, may be different here).

I used to work in importing and the company I worked for imprted a lot of licensed goods including Disney.  WE had to ensure the Asian suppliers we dealt with had the appropriate licenses and the only way to be sure was to take out licenses in our company name and then contracct the manufacturers to make products to the license standards exclusively for us.  Disney was incredibly complex, they had such stringent standards for quality, safety and reliability, the boss didn't trust anyone to deal with their licensing but himself.  We wholesaled to retail outlets and there were often limitations on who could and could not stock our licensed product, all in the name of protecting Disney's brand.

[thecatspjs]

You would definately need a licence to create and market new products such as you describe, even if your supplier is a licenced distributer. 

For most goods in Oz you can resell without a licence if the products you are reselling have been produced/purchased from a licenced manufacturer/distributer) and you are not claiming to be licenced distributer or using any of the companies logos etc that would infringe on intellectual property rights (copyright, trademark or patent). 

[digital*ghost]

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@clarry100 wrote:

So somehow we will need to establish if the Chinese wholesaler is manufacturing licensed products as well. 

We have seen quite a bit of this kind of product selling here on ebay and E**Y so one would assume (hope) that those sellers have all the appropriate licences in place. 

---

I can almost categorically guarantee the answer to both is no.... The Chinese just tend to make the stuff, and you'll find officially licensed products will have appropriate labeling, safety standards etc.

The other site (got slapped for mentioning them the other day, so not naming them  ) deals with it in a similar way to eBay - the rights holder needs to submit a formal complaint, after which the seller is given the opportunity to defend the claim (which you don't get here). However, they do enforce a 3 strikes and you're out system, they'll close down a shop, any and all associated IDs, and prevent you from opening a new one as soon as the third breach is made. Sellers there often don't know or understand (or don't care) that they can't make and sell products featuring someone else's IP without permission. 

[digital*ghost]

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@pennyforum14 wrote:

There is also a grey area in the legal stuff that means that the license only extends to the original sale. In other words, in the case of fabrics made with the Disney design, the manufacturers of these fabrics must have a license to use the Disney images and character names, but once the licensed fabric is produced, a craftsman who purchases it and makes it into a garment does not require a license to offer that garment for sale.  Second hand goods are also not required to prove license status (going by what was stated in a post in the E**y forums by a copyright lawyer awhile back, and that is in the US, may be different here).

---

I remember reading one thread there that mentioned some fabrics featuring trademarked designs are licensed for personal use only - there was some discussion about whether that could be enforced, though. 

[clarry100]

Tehe!

We don't meet rule #1 or rule #3.

So looks like all this is just getting too hard.

Might just have to put it to bed and forget it until we are millionaires with a billion dollar company.