Getting A License To Use A Trademark For Your Own Product?

Matt123UK

How much do these things cost? Is it easy to deal with these major company's and get permission to use a trademark of say Mikey Mouse/Peppa Pig/Game of Thrones/Postman Pat on designs you have made up?

I've heard Disney a pretty bad to deal with and they won't touch any small business, what are other company's like though? Are they easy to deal with and would they allow a small business to use their trademark for a percentage of each sale?

I'm thinking about writing to various company's sending them some of my work i would like to get licensed, i just want to know if I'd be wasting my time or not really though.

paddyrg

You are almost certainly going to tie yourself out going nowhere, the cost of the licensing deal is going to outweigh any upside. They aren't interested in a few quid every month, even accounting for that cash will cost more than it's worth, and the costs to you for the lawyers to draft and read the agreement is likely to make your eyes water!

You may even find that there is a complicated structure of rights holding companies with a structure of who licenses what to whom for which product categories, and who gets to sub-license it etc. There will also be very strict conditions on quality and context - for instance mickey mouse with a cigarette would not be appropriate, nor would mixing up licenses (Bob the builder with pingu).

Personally, I'd suggest putting that work into designing your own characters, or getting an illustrator do design some for you to work with, unless you're in the market for £000's in licensing and legal fees.

Wywth

Matt123UK wrote: »

How much do these things cost? Is it easy to deal with these major company's and get permission to use a trademark of say Mikey Mouse/Peppa Pig/Game of Thrones/Postman Pat on designs you have made up?

I've heard Disney a pretty bad to deal with and they won't touch any small business, what are other company's like though? Are they easy to deal with and would they allow a small business to use their trademark for a percentage of each sale?

I'm thinking about writing to various company's sending them some of my work i would like to get licensed, i just want to know if I'd be wasting my time or not really though.

a) They may not grant you permission to use their trademark at all

b) They'll name a price, but like everything in business, it is negotiable. How good a negotiator are you?

Do let us know how much you negotiate Disney down to in your request to use their trademarks :cool: