Hot Air, Shells, and Flowers
August 11th, 2006 by FineArtRegistry
Paintings of cottages with light streaming from the windows; larger-than-life paintings of flowers; sculptures of a guy on a horse. Can an artist who has developed a strong economic market niche for an easily identified style of work – like Kinkade, O’Keeffe, or Remington – actually copyright that style and preclude other artists from producing works in the same genre?
In a series of lawsuits, economically successful glassblower Dale Chihuly has attempted to do just that, asserting that blown-glass works based on natural forms like shells and spirals are characteristic elements of his work, and that works of other glassblowing studios inspired by similar forms constitute copyright violations. In this article, attorney and Fine Art Registry™ legal analyst Cindy Hill discusses the Chihuly lawsuits examines the corners of copyright and trademark laws that have a bearing on whether a particular style of work can be defended against others in court.
Learn about the legal reasoning that goes into determining whether or not something is considered an “original artwork” as opposed to a commercial product. When an artist employs hundreds of work-for-hire employees and instructs them to make thousands of blue bowls or paintings of cows, do those pieces constitute an original work of art for copyright purposes, subject to all the protections afforded an artist for creative designs? Or are they manufactured goods, protected only by trademark and commercial trade laws? How big does your art-producing enterprise have to get before this becomes a legal concern for you, and what can you do to protect your art against commercial market copying? This article explains an artist’s best defense against copyright infringement problems, regardless of the size of your studio and quantity of production, and guides smaller artists in avoiding claims that they are intruding on commercial artists’ copyrights and trademarks.
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