Here's A Copyright Violation Article That's Interesting
Business By costumeczar Updated 10 Feb 2011 , 12:22am by dchockeyguy
Notice that the planner said that she didn't post pictures of the event on her website, so it was someone at the party who turned her in. Don't think it can't happen! http://specialevents.com/news/planner-threatened-with-lawsuit-over-oscar-style-decor/
That's interesting because I can think of several cookie decorators who have done Oscar cookies (just because they could)! I do know of two cookie cutter companies who got C&D letters for making cutters that sort of looked like Oscar (a man's figure on a pedestal) even if they weren't Oscar himself.
I know people have to protect their rights, but sometimes I think things get a little bit silly. I heard about a company trying to copyright the colour of their logo so no other company anywhere could use it. Imagine if that had gone through, Coca Cola might do it with red and nobody would be able to wear it... world gone mad!
In my tenure working at the casket mfg'r company, where I worked directly with the Chairman of the Board on copyright and copyright protection, I learned that "common" things cannot be copyrighted. For example, the word "casket" cannot by copyrighted by one company which would prohibit all other casket companies from using it because this is a common item and word. So some attempts to copyright things ARE silly and are testimony to the lack of research on the part of the person trying to latch onto a common term.
I know people have to protect their rights, but sometimes I think things get a little bit silly. I heard about a company trying to copyright the colour of their logo so no other company anywhere could use it. Imagine if that had gone through, Coca Cola might do it with red and nobody would be able to wear it... world gone mad!
actually people can copyright an color. There is a "john deere green" and a "john deere yellow" And i know other companies have too, but this is one i'm more familiar with. You can wear the colors, you just have to pay to use them when making the shirt to sell.
Ridiculous!!! IMHO, of course 
That's really interesting, thanks for the story.
actually people can copyright an color. There is a "john deere green" and a "john deere yellow" And i know other companies have too, but this is one i'm more familiar with. You can wear the colors, you just have to pay to use them when making the shirt to sell.
Specific colors can be trademarked based on the 1995 Supreme Court case Qualitex v. Jacobson (linked below). I don't think a color (or a palette of colors) is sufficiently creative to be copyrightable, but the execution of a logo using one or more colors might be copyrightable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualitex_Co._v._Jacobson_Products_Co.,_Inc.
Trademarks are limited in scope, so if you made a cake in John Deere Green with a picture of a generic tractor on it you would probably be infringing, but if you just used the color to make balloons and a border you should be OK.
Maybe I am crazy but in my icing colors I don't have a John Deere green or Caterpillar yellow So, if I had a request for a John Deere green tractor I could get close but it wouldn't be exact, right? 
I have also heard that Tiffany's has a copyright on their blue.
just double checked, they have it trademarked, not copyrighted.
If you made a cake with something that looked like a John Deere tractor in a shade of green similar to the green they use, that would probably be infringing. A stylized, generic tractor in green might be OK, but it could still be interpreted as infringing.
Basically, if you look at it and think "John Deere", you're in trouble.
I have also heard that Tiffany's has a copyright on their blue.
They have a trademark, not a copyright. From the article below: "Because Tiffany Blue is trademarked, however, it cannot be used to package or advertise anything that might be associated with or in direct competition with Tiffany & Co. or its subsidiaries or be used to cause confusion amongst consumers."
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-tiffany-blue.htm
I noted that in the article she listed her attorney fees had gone over $2,000. She's lucky, that's nothing!
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