Kevin whitlark
Jan 27, 2008, 02:33 PM
I saw a cartoon of a pig dressed in a jump suit with side burns and hair. IT looked like the pig was inpersonating the King. Is that infringement or intellectual property fraud by the creator and seller of the shirt? Are they required to pay some kind of Licensing fee or royalty to Graceland etc..
It's not a picture of Elvis nor does it say anything.
Thank you
Clough
Jan 31, 2008, 02:24 AM
It may have looked like Elvis, but maybe it was not supposed to be a caricature likeness of him, since you do say that it does not "say" anything, presumably because there is no lettering or words on it of any kind.
It's very common to have caricature representations of famous people. I have never heard of a case where a caricature made of a person was made an issue in the legal sense.
I would suppose that as long as the caricature was not representative of the person in a libelous or slanderous sort of way, that it would be okay. However, if someone were to be making a caricature that included words that could be interpreted to be libelous or slanderous to the person who the caricature represented and then selling them for a profit or making them known to a larger audience such as it might be harmful to the reputation of the person about whom the caricature had been made, then I think you might have a possible legal issue there.