A legal expert says start-ups need to consider the cost of licence fees before they adorn their products with images from movies or books, after a Brisbane fashion label produced Star Wars<\/i> images on its clothing range.<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Black Milk Clothing, led by owner and designer James Lillis, began operating out of Lillis\u2019 kitchen three years ago.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The business initially produced Star Wars<\/i>-inspired products illegally, until it received a cease and desist letter from Star Wars<\/i> creator George Lucas.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In an unlikely twist, Lucas\u2019 film production company Lucasfilm eventually agreed to license the images. However, the new swimsuits will cost more than the originals because of licence fees.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The label has launched a pair of swimsuits inspired by two Star Wars<\/i> characters, R2-D2 and C-3PO, which, according to marketing manager Cameron Parker, are \u201cturning geek culture sexy\u201d.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n James Omond, of commercial law firm Omond & Co., says for a start-up, it is easy to take an image from a book or a movie and place it on clothing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cJust because it\u2019s easy doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s legal. If there\u2019s money to be had, the production companies will come calling,\u201d Omond says.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Omond points out that a lot of books and movies make more money from merchandise than from the original product, so production companies are wary of spin-off products.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThese guys (Black Milk Clothing) were lucky that… there was a real demand for [their products], which allowed Lucasfilms to say, \u2018Here\u2019s a good business opportunity\u2019,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThese guys obviously make good quality stuff that will wear the margin of the licensing on it.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIf you are going to licence images, you can usually add about 25% [to the cost of the product] if it\u2019s a well-known movie.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Omond says start-ups need to ask themselves whether a book- or movie-inspired product is going to differentiate the product and drive sales. He uses the Wiggles as an example.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe Wiggles characters are on bandaids. If you\u2019ve got young kids, some hate bandaids. If Dorothy the Dinosaur is on the bandaid, they\u2019re happy with that,\u201d Omond says.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cInstead of paying $7 for a box of Band-Aids, you might pay $10 because it saves you so much grief when you\u2019re trying to use the product.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s an example of where the manufacturers think it\u2019s worthwhile paying the additional royalty to stand out on the shelf.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Omond says start-ups might assume they\u2019ll get away without paying licensing fees because no one will notice, but this is not the case.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWith the Star Wars<\/i> bathers, they were doing it on their kitchen table so probably didn\u2019t think 20th<\/sup> Century Fox would become aware of what they\u2019re doing,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cJust because you\u2019re doing it in your backyard and not retail stores, you might think you\u2019re somehow able to get away with it [but] the big companies do follow up on that.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019ve decided that you want to use a product that is taking an image from a movie or whatever, you need to establish whether it is just a point of reference or a homage to it, or are you actually copying it?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIf you are [copying it], you do leave yourself open to legal demands.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIf it does look like a straight out use of the image, you need to look at… approaching the licence holder and saying, \u2018This is what I want to do\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A legal expert says start-ups need to consider the cost of licence fees before they adorn their products with images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59271,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,23,13,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44392"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}