I have created original patterns for dress up clothes that closely resemble the Disney princesses. If I sell the patterns or dresses for profit, am I infringing upon Disney's copyright? Does copyright protect the concept of the dresses? Am I ok as long as I do not put the name Disney on the product or any picture of the princesses? There are a few small details on each dress that are different than those seen in the movies, but I don't know if that is enough to be considered derivitive work. Could it be considered a derivitive work simply because it is a dress pattern rather than an illustration? Please help me! I would rather not have to buy a copyright license from Disney!!
Generally speaking, dress designs in the United States are not protected by copyright. As long as you are not trying to pass your dresses off as actual Disney products you will be okay. Even top designers copy the designs of other designers all the time. So as long as you are not trying to manufacture and pass off "knock off items" then selling dresses that look like the dresses in Beauty and The Beast or Sleeping Beauty is perfectly fine, even if they are exact copies.
Jefferson Hampton Coulter IIFamily Law AttorneyPasco, WA ·
Generally, "useful items" (like clothes and furniture) CANNOT be copyrighted. Patterns (and istructions) may be copyrighted. However, as long as you do not copy a pattern created by Disney (for example, buying a pattern at Jo-Ann and running it off at Kinkos) you are free to create your own, oiginal patterns (even if they are inspired by a Disney design) and to register copyright in them at the copyright office.
This is why companies such as H&M and Anthropologie are able to copy famous designs, clothing is typically unprotected in the United States. That may change if the Design Piracy Protection Bill is ever voted on in congress and sined into law, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting.
The previous two answers were right on the money.
If you're interested in a more thorough explanation about the lack of copyright protection for fashion designs you can visit the following websites. I'd recommend paying attention to the sections that discuss the (very limited) protection afforded to fashion designs under trade mark and trade dress law.
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/law/st_org/iptf/articles/content/1997121201.html
http://leda.law.harvard.edu/leda/data/36/MAGDO.html
http://www.law.northwestern.edu/journals/njtip/v6/n1/7/
I'm going to take a slightly different view point here. While I agree that dress designs are not protectable and therefore knockoffs do not infringe, the question here is whether a dress design can infringe a copyright in a film. The reasoning behind not protecting dresses is that they are utilitarian in nature and therefore are not protected. The Disney films, on the other hand, are protected and the dresses in them are expressive components of the characters and in some cases part of the plot (Cinderella). By their nature, a dress based on animation, these dresses are likely derivatives of the film. I would also be concerned that some of these dresses are so iconic that there may be some trademark rights to them.
That said, if the dresses are not based on the Disney dresses, but are instead simply generic princess dresses, you should have no problem, as the "concept of the dresses" is not protectable.
