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[jmcdan]

Hello,

I have a simple question and perhaps will need your help in handling the legalities.  My question is this:   I have a dear friend who is a very gifted artist (oil paintings) of Andy Griffith characters.  Many people who have seen her work say it is the greatest they have ever seen
and of the most watched TV show in the world and still running.

What problem could we encounter or have if we sold signed and numbered prints from the royalties claimed by the company that now owns the Andy Griffith show.   Or should we start by setting up a deal with them first.

Kind regards,

Jay

[Zonath]

This is not something you should do without first consulting an attorney who deals with issues like this, who will most likely advise getting a license from the company that currently owns the rights to the Andy Griffith show.  I would also think that there might be some issues over publicity rights which would need to be ironed out with either the actors depicted or their estates.

Publicity rights can be somewhat confusing through the fact that right of publicity or personality laws are made at the state level, and tend to have some variance between them (so a depiction which would be considered infringing in one state may not be considered infringing in another), but at the same time, if you're putting items into commerce, you might become liable for infringing the publicity rights laws in a state far-removed from your own.  In general, before you enter into any kind of commercial enterprise to depict a famous person, you should look into securing a license of those publicity rights.

The bottom line is that anytime you create an unauthorized depiction of a famous character or person, and proceed to sell or otherwise commercialize that depiction, you run into a whole host of potential concerns over infringement of the rights of the owners of those likenesses.