LJN Customs Question Is it Legal?

[Deleted]

Please don't bash me, just wondering about custom figures, when you customize a figure aren't you just modifying the likeness, the intellectual property still belongs to WWF/E....or is this something that is not a concern, wwe would never stand a chance on this? I don't do customs but I just wanted to hear what others have to say about it....oh btw im still have problems inserting a picture into here, not a link but pictures like ive seen others do...what am I doing wrong?

[mesteve]

I think it depends on whether or not you plan to sell them, and whether or not you plan to mass produce or not, or if you are just doing 1 for 1 customs. There is someone who posts on this board who has personal experience with this, but I'll let him reply if he so chooses.

[Boon]

I remember Ultimate warrior custom figures got removed a lot from Ebay

I know warrior was a great businessman and that was probably why any unauthorized warrior products used to get removed from ebay

I remember selling a Motley Crue t-shirt on ebay once that got removed as someone to do with the band or management got it took down

as previous poster stated, if you are doing one off's then no one probably cares

if you are mass producing then maybe someone will take issue with it

[Deleted]

It's hard because right now custom figures of wrestlers who do not yet have figures from Mattel but are WWE characters are being sold. Is that legal? Maybe? But I don't think it hurts the overall profit that WWE and Mattel make so they don't care.

So basically, even if a Finn Balor figure sells for $200 on eBay today it's not going to result in WWE or Mattel losing any money when they mass produce his figure and it hits retail so I doubt they care because even though it's $200 for one figure to them it's chump change in the grand scheme of things.

Given that WWE no longer cares about LJN or George Steele I'd imagine the only one who might have grounds to sue is George Steele himself since you stand to possibly profit on something that reflects his likeness *but* then you have to get into the question of how far modified something is and that sense because something can technically be "modified" by it being sold in used condition because of paint wear.

Essentially, I'd say that legally you'd get caught up in a lot of red tape and could claim artistic license and thus no one would have grounds to sue people who make customs any more than if you painted a picture of a tree and sold it then whoever's property that tree happened to fall on couldn't sue you. At the end of the day, if you did sue for likeness and all that you'd only really then be entitled to a percentage of the profit which would be, well, not enough to make it worth it in lawyer fees alone.

There is also the notion that once you buy something it is yours to sell as you see fit which is why a custom isn't too far different from the legalities of selling a figure broken down in pieces because in that regard someone could file a lawsuit (like Mattel or WWE) against those who sold just the heads on eBay for something like $5 because then if you could have just one Daniel Bryan figure with multiple heads you might not be so inclined to buy another for Mattel prices.

[JC Motors]

Custom's are a grey area of copyright law

[Kasper.ca]

Grey area, but unless a guy is raking in thousands a month, I doubt the WWE or anyone who could possible sue, would be interested in looking into it.

[@WWERetroStars]

I would suggest treading very lightly. Recently I had a very fair conversation with a member of WWE's legal team about our facebook site and LJN project. The WWE, like many major companies, has to protect their intellectual property at all costs. If they bend a little and give some rope in an area like customs there are countless people whole will take advantage of that leeway and crush them in other areas.

Sparing a lot of details, the ultimate conclusion of our conversation was that selling is a NO NO. Even if you don't use WWE marks or their intellectual property, you are likely infringing on the individual entertainer's property and rights. Create what you would like, make what you like... Leave it on your personal bookshelf and you will be fine.

On top of that, current WWE toy rights belong to Mattel. When you create a NEW toy, you are also infringing on their rights as well.

I will also say I was shocked by how cool and accessible the member of the WWE's legal team was. They could have easily been a total bulldog that took a hard line and blew us up. They clearly recognized that we were fans and they took the time to give us a path to keep our project moving forward. Very admirable honestly. Gained a lot of respect for the company.

[aaron34]

Wasn't there an article in a WWE Magazine or on their website about custom action figures a while back??