A question for the production team.

Not sure you can answer this but here goes.

The play i intend to submit contains a strong reference to a very famous American icon. I have approached the owners of this trade marked item asking for their permission to use this in the play, but have not had any response yet.
The play could be adjusted to remove this element but i feel it is far more likely to be successful with it in.

Approaching this American institution, to obtain their permission to use this Icon, would in fact make a very interesting & dramatic event for the TV program to follow.

My question is, will this work in my favour or against me. Will any weight be placed on the potential for conflict in getting the production staged, or will the judges avoid any such problems like the plague?

Are we looking for good TV or is the 'play the thing'

The play is a belter anyway, but I am looking for clues as to where to place the all important emphasis in my submission.

Regards

Hi Playfull

I'm in a similar boat; one of my entries is about a fictional advertising agency, and I mention about 25 major UK brands - but none of them in a defamatory way. The couple of 'brands' that are ridiculed in the play are totally fictional, and carefully researched so I KNOW they don't exist.

From my desk as a marketing consultant working on international brands, even though my knowledge of theatre legislation is limited, as far as I can see you don't need the brandholder's permission to mention a product in fiction so long as you avoid defamation - although you obviously can't show a logo without permission. By very definition, it's public domain, like referring to celebrities, royalty or politicians by name.

So it would be OK to have a character who drinks and is referred to as drinking lots of Coca-Cola, so long as you didn't state or imply, for instance, that he was being made ill or unhealthy directly by same. You might have other trouble if you set your play in the (named) Coca-Cola factory - but relevent, in-context references to a product should be OK, so long as they're not libellous.

The aim of trade mark protection is to enforce the trade mark against competitors and protect consumers from confusion as to the source of the products. Referring to a brand in a work of fiction can do neither - again, assuming libel law not breached.

If you were referring to a brand which belonged to one of my clients, if it was true and not harmful, I'd be delighted for the coverage!

How often has DelBoy ordered a Campari and Lucozade? How many times does Dick Francis refer to Cheltenham Racecourse? There's a very famous play called Boeing Boeing! And McDonalds weren't exactly chuffed about Super Size Me, but there wasn't much they could do about it!

There may be eggs on which you need to tread carefully - but isn't that the basis of some of the most compelling theatre?

PRODUCTION TEAM - PLEASE PUT ME RIGHT IF YOU THINK I'M MISADVISING ANYONE.

Hi Adman,

Thanks for the expert guidance - now this will intreigue you - It doesn't quite fit my situation.

1) I would like to use the icon in question in the title of my play.

2) There is a specific reference to any such use by the owners of the intellectual property.
Although this is possibly open to interpretation. Obviously, an agreement for such use would be prefferable.

I personally agree with your 'Benetton' style any publicity is good publicity sentiments.
(Jackson aside)

Please feel free to offer any further advice - you won't offend me - and any way i might need a brand consultant to fly to America to undertake the negotiations on behalf of my winning entry!

The main point of my question to the Production team was, would the following of my attempts to get permission/a licence from this very sexy, very well known and very important American Institution, be a turn on or a turn off for them?

PS. Adman, i could do with some brand advice in my buisness, what's your hourly rate?

Hi Playfull

Impossible to advise without more data, and probably not then! Remember I'm a marketing guy; what I know, professionally, of the law on literary inclusion you can fit on the back of a stamp - and not make the ink run when you lick it!

(If you bring out a product that even vaguely looks like / sounds like one of my clients' brands, I'll jump all over you - but I wouldn't know where I stood if you wrote a book with my clients' brand name in the title although I'd find out damn quick!)

Happy to offer any marketing help / advice I can to a fellow scribe, though. You can contact me in various ways through www(dot)tcworks(dot)co(dot)uk if you wish.

By the way - Adman 1961 = me, Philip, on the www!

There is some very useful basic info on http://www.urban75.com/Action/libel.html including a a link to the deformation act.

I also plead lack of expertise on this on but I did do a bit of research on the subject as one of the characters in the novel i'm writing is an incompetant solicitor. Be just my luck if the was a 'Hiram Wazzelgusset'or whatever practicing in a small village in Cambridgeshire.

On the other hand if the play is written already why not send it in anyway? Be sure that if it is a problem then the C4 lawers will vet it and you save having to pay a QC 500 quid to open the door and let you in.

Hi Gravedigger,

Thanks for the link, will check it out.

By a strange coincidence I am a solicitor whose real name is 'Hiram Wazzelgusset'. Unfortunately as i am actually incompetent i won't be able to sue you for deformation.

By the way are you a sad faced antipodean/

Okay, this comes from my limited knowledge…

You can use an Icon’s name (provided they’re dead – the living want profits – but so do the estates of icons – ask Elvis!)

As to brands… Yep use them in passing… but if they are the central point to a play, then they can (and have in the past successfully attributed the success of a play/screenplay to their brand) claim percentages to the box office.

As to your title issue… I would personally avoid the name of an icon in the title… not that it matters much… The Production Team will change the name of your play long before if hits the stage… The one thing a playwright has next to no say in, is the title of their play… They will give the play that will attract the biggest audience (regardless of what you think… and they will pay people HUGE amounts of money for 20 minutes work titling your play – am I right AdMan?)

But remember, this is a play to be developed… if your concept is good enough, they will tell you what to change (for legal or marketing reasons)

Hope this is of help

Best of luck

Jay

interesting....how about quoting other plays within a play? how does that work? or does it not at all? id love to ask shakespeare if he minds at all....but...that might be harder than first thought!