I purchased an edible image online to use at home on my son's birthday cake, but was wondering if I could do this same thing once I open my business to create cakes with copyrighted characters. From what I can gleam from legal posts online, by purchasing the image I am paying appropriate royalities--is this true if I am retailing the cake?

you probably cannot sell the image. Like the character pans, they are for home use.

are you saying you can not sell a character cake because I have.

Nicksmom, It is not legal to sell licensed character cakes, such as Disney and many movie themes. The pans are marked "for home use only" not for resale.

Many bakers do it, but should be discovered, or someone complains, they can fine you big, big bucks.

OMG it never occured to me I'm not sure weather to say yes or no from now on,I have not had any run-ins yet

Yes it is illegal to make a edible image and use on a cake if it is a character that is liscnesed or copyrighted. It is also illegal, from my understanding to make edible images of pictures that were printed by certain complanies like Lifetouch. Usually when you get professional pictures done they have the do not copy on the back of them. That still goes for if you copy them on edible paper and sell them. I have heard though that if you contact some of the photo companies they will give you permission to use them.

I am confused! Was the question asking if she purchased the edible images can they be put on a cake and be resold?

Thank you, I thought that was the question but some of the other responses totally thru me off!

Thanks!

Let me get this straight. It is illegal to put copyrighted transfers on cakes, using for home use pans only. Then why in the world do they put yearbooks out with all these pretty cakes. I have people coming to me with these pictures wanting me to do these cakes. What am I suppose to tell them? I mean I am not going to make all those character cakes for home purpose only. If I did that my husband would eventually hide all my cake baking stuff and that is grounds for divorce. As a matter of fact I have a Dora cake to do for a little girl's birthday friday. What do you tell these people when they ask for these cakes.

Thanks
Tonya

I'd also like to say that I contacted Deco-pac by email and asked:

I've heard that the cakes I make with your kits must be done exactly as you show in your picture. Is this true? I thought I could change the backgrounds. What am I legally able to do with these?

Their response:
All licensed designs are approved by the licensor and expect the cake design to be made as shown on the decorating card. They do need to be made as designed.We try to encourage this when giving copyright instructions.


So - even if you are buying the characters, they restrict what you can do with them!!

boy am i glad i read this - i am in law school - and never even thought about that -

Is there a way you can sell the character cakes and be legal, like have a valid business license.

Do you mean shaped character cakes? I don't think so.

Wow this totally sucks. I was just asked to do a Scooby Doo cake and was trying to think of a way I could make it "3D" or sculpted (I've never done it before, but it seemed like a good opportunity). I've also seen books that have licensed characters in them - like Mario Bros., Barney, My Little Ponies, etc. - I understand that you can't steal an image and just put it on t-shirts and sell it or on mugs, etc. - but I think for a cake, if you purchase the image, you should be able to sell it. And if THEY allow the pan to be made, then you should have a right to use that pan and sell that cake - it's not like they are really losing money. Disney doesn't have a licensed cake baker in every state (that I know of) to do Mickey cakes or Elmo (that might not be Disney). I guess this isn't legally correct - but doesn't that seem stupid to sell a pan and then tell people they can't use it???

Imartsy, I'd have to agree with you on that one.

They can't really believe that people buy these expensive pans for a one time use.

Some of these characters are here today gone tomorrow with the age group of the child. And here you are stuck with this $12-20 pan. And your kid has moved on to bigger and better things.

And of course as the parent giving the party you would never have same cake 2 years in a row.

Sounds to me like they are cutting off their nose to spite their face.

[quote="imartsy"]Disney doesn't have a licensed cake baker in every state (that I know of) to do Mickey cakes or Elmo (that might not be Disney).[quote]

My understanding has always been that those stores that carry or reproduce those characters in cake are part of a licensing agreement with the particular company. They pay to use the likeness or pay royalties per cake(not sure which). From what I have heard Disney is one of the worst about going after people using their characters without permission.

The wilton character pans are sold for the home baker for use at home. Just because you bought the pan doesn't mean you have paid to reproduce that character or image commercially. I haven't bought a character pan in so long but I wonder if it says anything on the instruction sheet about it. Wilton does count on the fact that you'll use it one or two times and that's it. They count on parent after parent deciding to make their child's favorite character for a special party. I'm sure they assume that it's just going to be factored into the cost of the party. And they are hoping to turn people on to decorating.

Are we as home bakers making a character pan and selling to friends or regular customers going to run into a problem, probably not but if you have a legit business and are advertising or putting pics of their cakes on your website, the potential is there. One way I have seen others get around this is to say they can decorate in the style and you as the customer can add your own character figures, etc.

I asked this question a few months ago on another cake group and someone said that they don't charge for the cake, they just charge for delivery of the cake - and the delivery charges varied based on how busy she was.

Just my 2 cents!

~Chelle

Is charging for the delivery and not the cake a way around it ? I am shocked to know that these character cakes are illegal to sell........... learn something new everytime I visit CC.

I don't know if this is correct or not, but I have heard that as long as the item in question is atleast 10% different than the original, you will be fine. So maybe if you transfer the picture onto your cake (using whatever method you like - kopykake, freehand, pin-prick, etc) instead of an edible image you more than likely will have much more than a 10% difference between your finished product and the original image.

I'll share the link that was given to me off another thread concerning this:


www.webmall1.com/copyrules.html

I think this is pretty cut and dry.

Sorry So Long......

Another lesson in Intellectual Property Rights 101.

As an artist, in school they beat this into my head, because art is always imitated!

First off, any design or idea, or creation captured (as long as it is out of your head LOL) whether through paper, website, photo, plans, or even discussions as long as it has been heard by another person and recorded somehow such as an appointment, etc. is immediately copyrighted by the designer or artist the minute it is created or discussed. This includes Disney character, company logos, movies, cartoons, posters, games etc., etc., etc. Any unauthorized use of images (including pans) may violate copyright laws, trademark laws, the laws of privacy and publicity, and communications regulations and statutes. That is why, on videos/DVDs they state for home use only not to be used in a public forum. They own them because of commerce. They make a living from their images. Knock-offs including cakes are illegal.

Even well known characters in the public media (such as Barbie, Spiderman, Care Bears etc. are not owned by you the cake artist) and therefore are not allowed to be seen as a public picture as advertising for your business or on your website without the written permission of the creator. Even with changes, if a court could prove it was a copy - it is illegal including knocking off a cake design found on cake central.

Sorry - - - character pans cakes and edible images not created by your own imagination are therefore illegal. But on the other hand, that means your own creations are protected also!

Again - sorry so long.

You guys get so ANGRY about people using your cake pictures as their own, but you want to try to "get around" the copyrights of others??? You can't have it both ways.

I also wish we could use them, but we can't.

I haven't really noticed anyone in this discussion getting angry, just trying to sort out whether it is legal or illegal to use character pans and images. I think that pretty much everyone at cc feels honored when another cc member tries to duplicate a cake of theirs found on this site. It is a great compliment that they find your cakes so appealing that they want to make the same one. And I haven't noticed anyone here trying to pass someone else's cake off as their own. Most people give credit where credit is due.

copying someone else's cake style isn't going to be an issue, but copying a trademarked design is.

Even when buying an edible image you are buying it for YOUR use, not for the right to use it on a cake and sell that cake for a profit.

And "giving" the cake away and charging for "delivery" isn't going to fool anyone unless you charge on the same amount for delivery that you would for any other cake.