by WhimsyPatch

Question by sas: Does Anime/Manga merchandise producer violates original creator IP rights?
I appreciate somebody with some knowledge with regards of IP and Anime to answer this question.

There was a case in thailand that somebody was summoned by Marvel for violating their IP right - that somebody dresses up as spiderman and distribute LPG gas as method of promotion.

Here i am wondering, how do we justify those people that creates the products based on anime (excluding doujinshi and fanfiction) such as action figures, poster, plush toy and CHOCOLATE based on the famous anime that have been aired these days?

Let's say i make action figures of Sanya V. Litvyak from Strike Witches and sells them publicly - complete with retail distribution chain, should i be summoned up for violating IP right? Can Funimation/Gonzo sues me for this? Who should sue me? Alternatively, should i give them royalties and how they plan to collect that?

As far as i concerned, the Anime doesn't have TM on their characters. And also, each IP copyright can only be applied for certain category only - i believe animation and food stuff have altogether different category number.

By the way, how bout those independent producer that makes product for their fan based community and sells strictly only to die-hard fans online? I know this because my friend used to make a plush toy from the anime Cardcaptor sakura. She strictly only custom made about less than 10-20 each time and sells very limited numbers of plush toys.

I hope a certain somebody will be bold enough to enlighten me on this, and also for the future viewers as well.
Okay, i planning on making them candies for a cons, should i contact Humikane Shimada for his permission?

Sure i love somebody could explain to me on the process/mechanism of obtaining a proper written permission.

Best answer:

Answer by Hibba
First off, I should probably say that I don't know alot about copyright law, but I'll try to answer. A copyright, as I understand it, is the right to produce something (a product, show, character, etc...). It can be granted to others, should the copyright holder allow it, to use it in a pre-determined way, such as making an action figure or candy. In order for you to legally make action figures of a copyrighted character, you will need written permission from the copyright holder. Otherwise, whoever holds the copyright may sue you. As for royalties, you could ask if you could work them into a deal with the copyright holder, but you will still need permission from the copyright holder to use their character.

Also, I believe that making food stuff after copyrighted characters to sell without permission is illegal.

As for the independent publishers, I am not sure. If they have permission, they may make the dolls, but I am not sure about laws governing choosing who may or may not buy them.

Edit:

If you are going to publicly distribute / sell them, then I think you would need to get permission. (Although, on a side note, if you were to share them just with your friends without charging them, I don't know if the copyright holder would care).

As for how to contact/obtain permission, I don't know what one needs to do, sorry. Perhaps if you write to the owner and tell him what you want to do, he can point you in the right direction. And/or, perhaps an online search on how to ask permission may be helpful.

What do you think? Answer below!

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