Can you make a 3D model of a copyrighted item?

[Damelvin]

I am going to add some easter eggs into my animation, but I was wondering since you have to get a signature from record company to use their song, do you have to do the same when you make a 3d model after a companies product?

[Rick TYler]

First off, you are almost certainly more worried about trademark protection than copyright. Trademarks protect marks of trade (like "Cheerios" in a certain font in a certain color) while copyrights protect writings and other similar intellectual property. Trademarks have been upheld for items of a distinctive design that uniquely represent a trademark holder's product. The classic glass Coca-Cola bottle is trademarked, for example.

There are two answers to your question. The first answer is that, no, you may not replicate someone's trademark without their permission. They could technically file a suit asking you to cease and desist using their trademark. If you are talking about something fairly generic like a notebook computer or cell phone, you are EXTREMELY unlikely to have a problem as long as you don't include the company's name or logo. If it has a genuinely unique shape, you might be infringing the mark.

The second answer is that as long as you are not using the shape in an insulting, embarrassing, or critical way that would tend to degrade the value of the trademark, and you are a high school student using this in your FIRST animation project for educational purposes, and that you and your team are not making money off the use of their mark, no self-respecting company lawyer will come after you. I seriously doubt that the company will care.

I am not a lawyer, but I do work with trademarks as part of my day job. If you want a really good opinion, you should consult a lawyer If in doubt, don't do it. Your problem, of course, is that you can probalby do what you want without a problem, and if you ask they will probably say no. My recommendation would be to model their product, and then alter the model enough that the maker is not immediately obvious. This should de-trademark your image.

[Li Jianliang]

A fun alternative is to have a parody of a copyrighted material, i.e. FIRSTios; my team included a box of those in our animation two years back.

[Koko Ed]

Well were making a Dance Dance Revolution MAchine for our aniamtion but I think we'll label it a Dance FIRST Revolution machine instead or something like that.
People have been using cpyrited things in their animations for years as far as I know and there has never been an issue so I doubt something will come up.

[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by Li Jianliang

A fun alternative is to have a parody of a copyrighted material, i.e. FIRSTios; my team included a box of those in our animation two years back.

If that's a parody of "Cheerios" you are talking about a trademark, not a copyright. There is a big difference.

[KenWittlief]

I don't see the problem. You can make movies (ie Hollywood) with anything you want in the film, if its part of the story, and as long as you are not misrepresenting anyones product (like filming an Apple computer but putting a Microsoft label on it and calling it a MS computer).

The 3D models you make are nothing more than an artists concept of the real thing, right?

The only recent case Ive heard of a trademark owner complaining over someones use of their trademark: some guy wrote a book about Hersey (the company) and put a photo of a Hersey bar (the wrapper) on the cover of the book.

The company complained because it gave the impression the book was officially endorsed by Hersey Inc.

For your animation, if Hollywood could film an object as part of a movie, you can 'cartoonist' the same object for your animation.

[Mr.Fraggs]

im with Ken on this one. Thers been tonns and tonns of models in the whole CG comunity (www.cgtalk.net) and thers no mention of trademark violation anywhere. I never heard of a lawsuit filed about this issue. But make sure as Ken said, that you dont make the product or object what ever it is look bad.

[Damelvin]

Well I was thinking of making a psp, ipod, and a xbox 360. I just wont put any logos on the machines. These objects have nothing to do with the animation, but they are easter eggs.

[Capt.ArD]

2 years ago, we had a nissan 350z in out animation, but we just left the writing off the hood ornament. Another year we had a toolchest with the craftsman label backwards. Another year we had a "Mountain Moo" soda can. Never caught any flak for it.
I have always understood that as long as you don't slander the product/company, it is alright. Really, if i were a company, and some kids put my product in an animation, i would be glad for the free advertising. I've never heard of anybody getting in trouble for product placement.