Re: artwork for a winery

On 6/8/99, Randi Millman-Brown <millman[_at_]ithaca.edu> wrote:
>
> We know an artist who has been commissioned to create a painting for
> a winery. The winery is paying him a very nice fee for this work.
> The question is does the winery then have the right to reproduce the
> work on t-shirts, wine glasses, aprons, etc., without further
> compensation to the artist? I am assuming it does, however, the
> artist is demanding additional compensation and it is getting almost
> to the point of nasty
>
> How on earth does the winery figure out future compensation for the
> rights to use the image? Didn't they pay for it? Hope this makes
> sense -- the more we try to hash it out -- the more questions we get,
> not answers. Any thoughts?

I think your and the winery's assumptions are about 180 degrees from where the law is at.

Unless the parties have expressly agreed, or unless the always-intended-and-universally-understood primary use of the painting in question was for reproduction as you described, then the artist retains copyright in the painting, regardless of who owns the original object, and any reproduction of it or creation of a "derivative" (e.g. T-shirt) is exclusively the artist's right. Therefore, if the winery wants to be able to do this, it has to reach a licensing deal with the artist.

One practical suggestion might be to offer the artist a percentage of the proceeds of sale (or better, of profits) of the licensed products, which would give the artist an incentive to permit maximum commercialization.

Usual disclaimers apply: not legal advice, no client relationship, etc. etc.

Vance R. Koven
<vrkoven[_at_]world.std.com> Received on Wed Jun 09 1999 - 13:32:05 GMT