This is pretty strictly regulated among photographers,writers and other artworkers worldwide and should be an easy case for any attorney.

Kris you will have a solid case suing them on a pretty large chunk of the turnover they have on these products.

About the rights on your artwork you can sell it in different variations. Photos can be sold on one printrun only or forever. It is just up to you and the buyer of the artwork.

Just be sure to tag the images with your Copyright information in Photoshops fileinfo box.

Jan

I stopped by the local Checkers today, and the TR-3 display with the artwork of my car was on the counter.

kris, i thought i would throw in my 2 bits if you don't mind. first off you might not have wanted your images associated with this company for many difern't reasons, thus you need compensation and astronomical fees are commen place. i worked in the fasion industry for many years and with like situations when a company has used an image they have not paid for i was duely compensated(and very well i might add). for example, just for the image for the day could be anywhere from 5k to 200k and up, depending who you are and what it is being used for. for the nation wide campaign as is with your situation depending on how long they run it for and again who you are could be anywhere from 50k to a mill and up. always remember when your being compensated that you have worked hard to be where you are at and you create 1 of a kind art that is highly sought after by GM and other large organizations and your fees are ajusted in a like matter not to their liking but to yours, if not they can go else where. problem is they can't the damage has already been done

Were you able to talk them out of the display?

Nvawgn,

Thanks for the info. I should be getting more info on Tuesday and we'll see where that takes us.

I'm headed over to Kragen later to see if they have the display. I'll be taking my camera.

Kris

Finding a Lawyer
 

I hate to say it but I've been down this road before on one of my designs, so here's my 2 cents.

Use an attourney in your state and make sure you file there, it's the defendants responsibility to travel to "wherever" in it's own defense, do not let a firm from the state where the infringing company is based sell you on the idea that it would be better served there. The court systems are far more partial to residents of thier own state regardless of the case.

Research your lawyer, make sure they have had good success in this area before. No lawyer can be everywhere all the time so a good firm will have a para-legal act as your first line of communication. The para-legals are really the backbone to any well structured case, the lawyers job is to take his/her knowledge of the law and make it work for you, the para-legals are the ones who research and outline the information for the lawyer to work with.

Make sure your lawyer has a plan of attack for when the the company thats using your image on it's advertising tries to separate itself from the company that created the advertisement for them. "This is going to happen the moment you step before the judge". Your lawyer should be prepared to ask for exactly how many copies of the image are in circulation and ask to be awarded a royalty fee per item right then and there even if the money needs to be escrowed with the courts. Ultimately the fight is going to come down to between you and the advertising firm, but at least you'll have the complete cooperation of the manufacturer in speeding up the works.

Structure your legals fees based off the total award at the end of the case, the larger the settlement the bigger the % the firm gets, that will keep them motivated.

Like I said earlier, just my 2 cents but this does really come from past experience.

Good Luck.

No Bill, I didn't ask for one of them, but I did give them my business card which uses the same image as the one that Blue Magic stole for use on their display.