So What Is Legal, And What Isn't?
Decorating By summernoelle Updated 16 Jul 2007 , 4:10am by Eggshells
There has been a lot of talk the past couple of days about legality of selling certain cakes, and I am wondering if anyone can help me.
Is it legal to sell any type of character cakes? For example, someone asked me to make a Micky Mouse cake for them. Is that legal? I didn't use the character pan, but sculpted it myself.
Can you sell cakes made from a character pan, like the ones made by Wilton?
What about cakes that have figurines or just drawings of other cartoon characters, like Dora or Blues Clues or Spiderman? Can we sell cakes like that that have their photos on them?
I hope this post makes sense, I am just seriously confused because some people say that it isn't legal, but then I see photos that people have posted of different characters, and they sold them, so I didn't know.
Thanks!
It is illegal to SELL any copyrighted character, whether it is freehand or from the Wilton character pan. Disney is said to be one of the most vigorous protectors of their copyright. Many people make and post these cakes because they were done for free, for family or friends. You CAN make them for free. This thread may help you:
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopicp-4028843-.html#4028843
What about people who have put little figurines on cakes and then sold them?
One more question, so do you just not do character cakes, period? What do you do about children's birthday cakes?
I do character cakes for my children, my niece, my god-son. All for free (you will see them in my gallery - Backyardigans, Elmo...). For paying customers I don't encounter it very often, but when I do, I ask them to buy the figurines so I can design a cute cake for them to put the figurines on. There is a cake shaped like a '4' in my gallery that the customer bought the Lightning McQueen and Mater cars for. It turned out great, and I'm not gonna get sued by Disney. 
Cute! Thanks so much for all the info.
I have to admit I'm a little disapointed, though. I've been asked to do an Elmo and a Micky cake, so now I will have to find a more creative way to do it. Better than getting sued, though.
My understanding is this....you can't legally sell any licensed character in ANY form unless you pay for the copyright use. I was told previously that there are two other things you can do. One is "give" the cake for free but sell plain colored paper products (plate,napkins etc) along with it and basically include the cake price in that package amount. I'm not sure exactly how that works though if it came down to you being investigated over it. Tough to prove...
Second is buying the figurines from the store and using them on the cake. This covers the copyright issue since your buying them from a licensed dealer. A lot of times you can find the cake decorations for the popular cakes by searching ebay or even your local grocery store. I've bought cake decorations from both places and it saves a lot of the hassel. You can then add what you've had to pay to what you'll need to charge the customer.
On the wilton discussion forum this same questioned was posed and from there I learned that you CAN sell their character pans but not the LICENSED character pans..ie Dora, Backyardigans etc.
HTH
To be on the safe side, I always tell my customers that THEY can buy the figurine and put it on the cake.
We do the same, unless I'm making a cake for friend or family. Then since it's free I do what I want.
Even if you change the color of Micky's ears, as long as he's still recognizable it's a infringement of copywrite laws.
Wilton makes the character pans for HOME USE and home use only, they are NOT to be used for commercial purposes.
Now, if you have a connection with a bakery supply house, you CAN, and it's perfectly legal, to buy cake decorating kits or Edible images to put onto your cakes.
This is the ONE and only time it's OK.
But, my company is with Kelleym on this, better to be safe than sorry. We got asked to do a BOB THE BUILDER cake for a client, we told her that we could make her a "CONSTRUCTION CAKE" and that she was more than welcomed to decorate it with her purchases of Bob The Builder toys when she got it home.
I hope this clears up some of the confusion for you.
It does. But, what does it mean to have a connection with a bakery supply house?
Companies like Bakery Crafts and DecoPac license with Disney, Nickelodeon, etc. to produce and sell the cake kits for all your favorite characters. These are perfectly legal to use, because you are buying them and cannot change the look of the character. Companies are so strick about reproducing their characters to secure the integrity of them. If can legally draw Barbie on a cake, then you could draw her doing something obscene, or just do a terrible job! You can't make a profit off their product without somewhere down the line them getting a cut. Like the kits, they are getting a % of sales. The cake pans however, you only pay for them once and could potentially sell hundreds of cakes without paying them anything again. Edible images are the same a cake kits, you purchase them and use them once, and can't change them so that's legal. But you can't scan a picture of Mickey and print your own Edible Image, that's not legal. I know it's confusing, but it's important info to know! HTH -Lori
CelebrationsbyLori, that helped a lot. Makes a little more sense now.
Hmmmm... ok, just wanted to clarify something here.
I just posted in another thread and mentioned the fact that making licensed cakes is illegal. I happened to mention Mickey Mouse. Apparently, someone thought I read this thread (I didn't) and I got a PM about it. I typed up a response explaining what I meant in my other post - but I was blocked by this user.
Let me clarify my position. I really thought I had done that in the other post - but I guess I wasn't clear enough. My post was about how people get up in arms about one thing that is "illegal", but say nothing about other things that are. I used an example (which just happened to be Mickey Mouse), and someone took it personally.
I (personally) do not care if people make character cakes. I feel we should be allowed to. I disagree with the copyright thing on something that is going to be eaten. If you make one, I'm not going to tell Disney on you. If they want to go after you, that's their business... and that's what I meant by that.
My comment was that we shouldn't go around tattling on each other - and that none of us is without sin. I'm sorry that this person to offense to my post - it certainly was not intended.
Does all this legallity apply to other logos as well. For instance Nike shoes, John Deere tractors, Corona beer bottles (I think it's beer) Company logos, etc, just curious.
Does all this legallity apply to other logos as well. For instance Nike shoes, John Deere tractors, Corona beer bottles (I think it's beer) Company logos, etc, just curious.
I assume it applies to everything which is why I don't see the huge debate... I'm sure some of the people who refuse to do Elmo will do a Louis Vuitton purse cake.... KWIM?
i do the same thing when making cakes to avoid any legal action just incase "knock on wood" i ask the customer to buy the character like for a cake due in 2 weeks the woman has asked for a beach theme where dora and elmo are attending a party i said sure but i will make the beach theme and she will provide the figures, my cost stays the same and she can have the figures she wants and eveyone is happy and i don't have to go around town looking from a mini dora and elmo and no one gets into trouble "knock on wood" 
the very first thing my cake teacher told us when we went to class is beware the party guest because you never know who will be there or who will see the pics
lets say they want a minnie mouse cake. ok, well you make a tiered cake red, add the white dots and a black bow and call it an interpretation of the character. i imagine with that you are safe. otherwise, like the others have said, buy the kits from the distributors or have the clients buy the toys.
When my daughter wanted a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake my hubby & I made the topper & my BIL made the cake. Not only because I am anal & want everything the way I WANT it 
but cause we didn't want to see my BIL get in trouble. We are doing it again for our twin's High School Musical cake.
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=544613
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=591393
When it comes to cookies, I try to find something that relates to the show/character but wont get me into trouble. But if it is for my kids etc.. I just do it.
Anything that has a registered trademark is illegal to reproduce unless you buy into the copyright-but who has several $thousands laying around to do that? At the shop where I work, we do not sell the cake kits, nor do we buy them because we don't do the volume that grocery stores do so it's not cost effective. When we have someone come in that's wants a character, we tell them that we can decorate around a pre-purchased item (doll, car,ect.) which buys the rights to use it. I did a cake recently that had a Hello Kitty theme, so I did the flowers that were on the napkin. There are several things that can be done to tie the cake in without actually using the character.
When my daughter wanted a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake my hubby & I made the topper & my BIL made the cake. Not only because I am anal & want everything the way I WANT it
but cause we didn't want to see my BIL get in trouble. We are doing it again for our twin's High School Musical cake.http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=544613
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=591393
When it comes to cookies, I try to find something that relates to the show/character but wont get me into trouble. But if it is for my kids etc.. I just do it.
If it's for your kids, family or friends there is no problem. I have done Elmo from my grandaughter and now she wants Dora.
I have done characters for dear friends kids and don't charge for those, I won't even post those on my website.
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