I have a client that has inquired about a car cake. I know the names and logos are trademarked. What about the shapes of the cars themselves? I have been searching online and find it difficult to weed through all the sites to find what I need.

I have not replied to her online inquiry yet. I would prefer to know before contacting her.

I think (but I'm not the expert) that the shapes would be fine. Just no eyeballs and stickers, etc...

The designs of cars are copyrighted (there is a ton of expensive R&D involved shaping exteriors for both aesthetic and performance reasons) but I doubt a cake will be able to reproduce the intricacies of the design in great enough detail to be infringing.

I recently had to go through the copyright issue regarding completing an officially sanctioned NASCAR cake for a local racing company. What I was able to determine was that the general shape of the car was acceptable as long as no copyrighted logos or make specific designs were included. This worked out fine for me because the NASCAR was specifically modified for this racing company. Therefore, it meant I could copy specifically the design elements that had been customized for them. However, I had to leave off all of the corporate logos and anything else that was copyright protected except for the two companies that own the car and who provided me with permission. HTH