Re: T-shirt resale

On Thu, 11 Feb 1999, Angela Putney <aputney[_at_]aip.org> wrote:
>
> I lived in the LA area for several years and noticed (I have not
> noticed this elsewhere to the same degree) that many of the Toyota
> pick-up trucks there have one or many of the letters removed from
> the back of the truck so that while driving behind one you read,
> "TOYOT," "TOY," "YO," etc. (Some have new letters added too, I've
> seen "YOYO".) Is this a derivative work? Presumably a substantial
> fraction of these trucks get resold and such a change in the vehicle
> is not "normal wear and tear."

   From the copyright point of view, I don't think so. First of all, Toyota would have had to have had a copyright in its name. It probably doesn't due to its length. Remember, you must have an underlying work to have a derivative work. Secondly, the derivative work needs to have independant creative value, and these modifications probably do not. In particular, there are only a limited number of ways to really modify the letters in Toyota, and we have seen a lot of them.

-- 
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The preceding was not a legal opinion, and is not my employer's.
Original portions Copyright 1999 Bruce E. Hayden,all rights reserved
My work may be copied in whole or part, with proper attribution,
as long as the copying is not for commercial gain.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Bruce E. Hayden                      bhayden[_at_]acm.org
Phoenix, Arizona                     bhayden[_at_]ieee.org
                                     bhayden[_at_]copatlaw.com