Can I get away with parodying a company name?

R

RockmanX3

Well-known member
After many years of planning, I'm finally going to be shooting something in a month or so. Yay! :thumbsup:

However, I want to make fun of the company I work for with a parody name and logo. For example, I'd be making fun of something like "Wal-Mart" (no, I don't work for Wal-Mart) and call it "Wool-Mart", "Wool-Mark", "Walled-Mart", etc. I also photoshopped a logo which is similar, but very different looking than my actual company's. Most people wouldn't pick it up at the first glance, but my co-workers probably could if they thought about it hard enough.

Could I possibly get in trouble for this or would it be covered under fair use and parody? I kind of plan of showing this parody company in both good and funny light.
 
Logos and names are not copyrightable works and copyright issues such as Fair Use for parody aren't relevant for them. Instead you need to look at trademark law, a whole different kettle of fish. And under trademark law, it depends on just what light the name and trademark is used. You could have a scene where a conversation takes place in a MacDonalds restaurant and likely not have an issue with their name or logo appearing in the background. But if one of your characters takes a bite of their burger and immediatley vomits because it's spoiled you'd probably be getting a nasty C&D letter very quickly.
 
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Been thinking about this. Legal or not, releasing to the public a parody about the company you work for might not be the best career enhancing strategy you could come up with.
 
Trademark law is the least of your worries in a legal sense. Libel is a lot more important. If the parody is obvious and you're saying something unfavorable about the company it could be construed as a libelous attack, or it can be argued that parody allows you to do that. If it came to it that would be a massive gray area that depends on a judge's opinion of what those laws mean. But that's only if it came to that. If you honestly think the people you work for would take you to court over using their name and logo then it might be best to be at least subtle.
 
I actually decided to change the parody to something completely unrelated and will probably appeal to my target audience more. Thanks for the advice.
 
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