Warhol didn’t have any connection to the Campbells company, he just copied their can. It wasn’t his design.

He’s not. Let’s stick to what he is doing, please.

Andy Warhol wouldn’t have much of a career these days, that’s for sure. Whether that’s a good thing or not, however…

Warhol’s iconic painting of the Campbell’s soup can proves the point. Warhol designed the can. Campbells let him use the image in his paintings. It is an image that he guarded jealously as well he should.

> Trademark law is only intended to prevent one producer from misidentifying its product as that of another.

You don’t think that the casual viewer would think that this was endorsed by the Tide?

> One company introduces a new product. Another, inspired by the first, creates a similar but better product.

Well, that kind of fails to relate. Wii created these motion controls. Then Sony of course take the same idea and combines a camera and better tracking equipment and call it the Move. Well, that is great that is what innovation is all about.

But Sony can’t create the motion controls and rename its game system the “Wii” and so on.

And of course on the techy end there might be patent issues, too. the science goes over my head so the law does, too, but the trademark issue is clearly enough in that case.

Like I said, I am of two minds on the subject, but I don’t think its as clear as you say.

But what if he does it as a parody?

The guy makes a painting of the University of Alabama logo, sells it, and that is not confusing the product as being licensed by the University?

When the guy paints a picture of Alabama playing, that is fine by me. That is capturing a moment in time.

When he paints a montage of nothing but Alabama’s trademarked logo, he doesn’t have that right.

Patents and copyrights limit free riding in certain ways, but not in general, and trademark law limits it even less. In general, saying that one party is getting a free ride on the work of another does not constitute a legal argument or an ethical argument.

This would have to be a similar thing.

One example was a Mustang Owners Club who tried to publish a calendar of their own cars. Ford claimed it was violation of their trademark and copyright for this “commercial use”.

> The apocalypse is upon us.

You know, just the other day i saw a dog and a cat living together. But i didn’t think much of it at the time. 😉