I'm all for designing my own cakes, I understand why copyrights are in place, I can understand why companies would be upset about not making any money off of a cake made to look like their characters, and I agree that paying a one time fee for a character pan does not give you the right to sell hundreds of them. But if a customer asks for a strawberry shortcake cake what are we gonna do? I don't think Cranberry Shortcake is gonna cut it. It's a moot point but I agree that it's stupid that you can't make a cake with the popular characters without worrying about being sued. I mean last I checked The Disney Store does not sell cakes, cake decorations, or any thing like it.
One thing that isn't clear to me.....if you design your own cake and then add a licensed character candle you bought does the entire cake now become a license infringed cake? I mean you buy the character candle or figure every time you make the cake not just once like the pans so they get their money every time on the candles and such but not the cake cuz it's your design......