I recently found out that I cannot make licensed cake characters to sell and if I get caught that I could be fined $300,000 - is this true? I did however, find out that licensed cakes can be made as a gift. Lately all my clients are requesting licensed characters and I enjoy making them for the skill. Is it at least okay to charge for the cost of the cake and supplies?

I'm hoping one day to have a website but was warned DO NOT post any licensed character cake pictures or I will be severely fined.

Also I do have a business license for my business of decorating cakes - would cakes of this type be covered here?

If anyone could share any information or send links with information pertaining to this subject it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

Hi

I have heard this too. Apparently it is true. However, wilton makes the darn pans, so what do they expect us to do with them. The bakery that I used to work for does them all the time, I have been doing them for the past 3 years. So, I don't know how closely or how strongly it is enforced. The way I see it, if you can't make and sell them, then why is the pan made and sold?

Good Luck
Dawn

Hi Birdlady, my source told me those Wilton pans are made for "mommies" to make homemade cakes for their little ones thus "not for resale". I was actually one of those mommies as i started with Elmo then that's how this whole cake thing transpired from me. Everyone attending my parties always wanted cakes and licensee ones too!!! Now I started making 3D ones and was told I could be in big trouble. I don't know what to do - cakes are really my passion but at least i could probably make them and sell at cost not making any profit.

It's true, I have heard of cases where people have been fined. The character pans are made and sold with the intesions of HOME USE ONLY. It IS elligal to sell them to anyone privately or out of a bakery. The Wilton pans that are not trademarked however (like animal crackers, the fire truck, train, little hero etc etc...) CAN be sold without the very expensive consiquenses (however you spell that..)

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-32132-character.html

This link, has some other links about the copyright stuff.

My understanding is in order to sell the character cakes, you need to purchase the rights to them. The pans Wilton sells are supposed to strickly be for household use only.

There are alot copyright issues involved in selling these kinds of cakes.

Here's another topic I found:

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-32132-licensing.html


HTH!

I guess it's easier to explain it like this....
You can buy a disney movie...say CARS. It's intended for household use for your children (just like the lighning mcqueen pan that wilton makes...) If you go and build a theater and start selling tickets, (or building a bakery and selling lightning mcqueen cakes...) then the copy infringement people will be after you for illegal distribution yadda yadda yadda.....make sense??

HI

That is what I was feeling, can they fine you? DEFINATELY! Will they, probably not, I think that they would more likely fine a bakery that sells a lot. But who knows, strange things happen.

Is there somewhere that rights may be purchased to sell these cakes? but depending on cost of course. I guess I'll just have to take caution about which cake pictures I post on my future website. All I know is that everytime i go to this particular supplier, I get questioned about the cake I'm making and if it's for sale. I politely end up it's just a quick cake for work and squirm my way out of the conversation saying I'm in a hurry and can't chat.

You can always just tell them it's a cake for your own kids...(they REALLY like to eat cake...) or a cake for a niece or nephew...you enjoy the practice right???...or there's always the "please mind your own freaking business, do I pry into your business??"
As far as I can remember being told, purchasing the rights to character cakes is very expensive...maybe there's some info on the Disney site????

I'd like to know where, other than on the pan that it says this. I tell customers all the time and they don't understand. I've been looking for a legal disclaimer but have not found one. People around here sell those cakes and it really ticks me off, because I follow rules and they do not.

Actually, the character cake police have already nabbed a few people. Disney apparently takes selling character cakes very seriously, and have threatened to sue over people selling cakes baked with their character pans.

A friend of mine in another forum was approached by wording she uses on her website to describe a certain technique she offers. Apparently the phrase "edible image" is trademarked, copywritten, whatever. They asked her to remove the phrase from her website. I do not remember which company it was that asked her to do this, nor do I recall her telling us how they found out.

Theresa

My uncle is a lawyer in a rather large firm in Cincinnatti (sp?). He checked with the partner who is in charge of copywrite stuff for me. It is illegal for us to sell (exchange any money) a cake that has a copywrited image of any sort on it.

Now you can get around this by putting a small plastic figurine of the character (elmo, cars, etc.) on the cake that has been purchased and paid for already (because then the people who own the copywrite get a royalty from it), versus actually drawing the character on the cake.

Mostly, in my opinion, this boils down to a personal moral issue. Each of us individually has to determine if we are comfortable with intentional law breaking and comfortable involving others (our customers) in law breaking. I would say that 90% of my customers have been very accepting of the fact that I do not do the character cakes, once I've explained that it is an illegal practice. The other 10% have gone elsewhere, and that's okay with me. I may loose a bit of buisness from it, but I don't live my life fearing "getting caught" and I feel like I'm running a positive buisness.

Good luck making your own decisions!

Thanks tastycake!!! When I look back at all the licensed character cakes I've made 80-90% of them have been free because they were either for my son, god daughter or friends who's party I attended so that was my gift to them. As for the other 10% I did charge them but that was so long ago when I had no idea and the cost was just to cover costs because they were made for close friends. I think going forward I will seriously watch what I bake and sell. This is a hobby that I enjoy and can make some money from and I don't want that taken away from me.

I have the legal disclaimer on my website, and I got it off the Wilton website. It goes like this:

All licensed characters shaped cake pans, candy molds, Cake Top! Edible Cake Decorations and cookie cutters are for consumer home use only. Stores/shops cannot make cakes, cookies or candies from our licensed products and sell them to consumers. These "mold making items" are strictly prohibited for any type of commercial use since the licensor has neither the method to control the quality of the reproduction of the character nor the ability to earn royalties on sales of the "made" products. This applies to both baked and craft-type products.

Free-hand or copies character designs cannot be drawn or iced on top of a cake, cupcakes or cookies and sold for any type of commercial purpose. Once again, the licensor cannot control the quality and is not earning a royalty on product created around their characters.

Licensed pans cannot be rented to consumers by stores since, once again, the licensor is not earning a royalty from the transaction.

Generally, creating any type of image that looks like a licensed character that is sold for commercial purposes is prohibited unless there is specific licensing agreement with the licensor for that product and royalties are paid each time the product is sold.

I wouldn't take the risk. There are people hired for major companies that spend ALL DAY searching the web for violations. If posted on your website you could definitely get in trouble.

I guess I was thinking of it in terms of selling the cake pans. At least my but is covered there. I have been thinking of taking the licensed pics of my gallery though - just in case. Does anyone know who to contact to talk about licensing agreements with the licensor?

I would love to purchase a license agreement but only if I could afford it.
All of this makes me think of free song downloads and burning of DVD's - it's illegal but everyone I know does it.

Just today, I found a bakery who will not post license character cakes on their website but will make them and sell them for $100 minimum.
Actually I inquired about the Wilton Dora cake and the price was $145 with no filling and no delivery!!!! Talk about highway robbery since the cake barely costs $10 to make!!!!

I have managed to not tick off too many people by using the plastic pieces (strawberry shortcake...spongebob...) but in a different way than a flat cake with a litte airbrush. Usually it does well- better presentation, happy customer, and no fines. Some of the tiered cakes with characters are in my photo album, and website.