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Nintendo and Sanrio laws?
I was considering starting a small business on etsy and I wanted to make some animal crossing and sanrio character pieces (as well as my own character designs) such as clay earrings modelled by myself after the characters, however I am aware there are copyright laws and such and while I have done research I cannot find a solid answer.
Lots of people seem to produce art on esty based off these characters but is it legal? I would only do this if it was 100% legal to make fan made product, I would not be copy and pasting official artwork and such but I would be making my own based off the characters. Does anyone know the legalities of this? Thanks
3 Answers
- 4 months agoFavourite answer
This would be copyright infringement based on international intellectual property rights laws. That said, Asian countries do the same thing to United States companies as basically standard practice and nothing happens. The chances of either company actually pursuing an Etsy seller are probably nonexistent, but that's not to say it couldn't happen.
TLDR: It's illegal but you probably wouldn't hear anything about it.
- A HunchLv 74 months ago
No. It is not legal.
You need the trademark permission of the companies that own the character rights.
And it doesn't matter if you are smaller than a gnat. Etsy won't allow it.
- Anonymous4 months ago
If your business did 10 x more than expected and it was illegal you would never hear from them because you are the smaller than a gnat. So I would not worry about it. Or spend $300-500 to hire an attorney for an expert opinion.
