Using Kitt car image on a product

[Ginnie]

Hi Everyone,

I am new to this site and have a question if anyone can help me on. I am looking to produce a product for retail that would have the Kitt car image on it. Can anyone help me, who should I approach to buy the license/rights from? I guess Universal but any help/pointers here would be greatly appreciated.

thanks

[Assasinge]

Good luck even trying to get a license from those jerks Universal.

[jup]

I really wouldn't know. After all, Knight Rider is kind of like a sleeper property of Universal/NBC. Last I knew, the (original) show was still listed on NBC's on-line access series and as Action Pack once learned, all KR properties are still very secured by Universal. (To this day, I would imagine.) So, there probably is nobody but Universal to talk with about a retail purpose of Kitt's image. (Maybe David Hasselhoff, as he seems to get public advertising and movie/show clips done with KITT on a remarkably regular basis. Then again, he's actually owned replica KITT's and can probably talk just about any KR fan into lending him their Kitt replicas.)

[msKEN]

First you have to become a LIMANET member at http://www.licensing.org

Then you need to contact NBCUniversal Brand Development threw that website here:
http://www.licensing.org/limanet/direct ... _member=on

Then be prepared to have your heart broken when you find out its $10,000 just for a tshirt design. You don't even wanna know how much for a digital multimedia/video game license.

[jup]

That might explain why in the NES game, there's virtually no sign of Michael Knight, then. (Aside from the title mannequin.)

[snafu]

I've seen friends of mine using the Browning and UnderArmor logos on their sale embroidery stuff without contacting the companies. I've warned them that copyright infringement is a big deal, and they don't seem to care....
It's really not a safe thing to try. Not that is sounded like you were going to do it.

To get shirts at our university with the department logo, we had to get $8 polo shirts at Old Navy and then take them to the OFFICIAL university monogram department. (which was significantly more than $8) We couldn't go to Joe Schmo's Monogram Shop.

I wonder how people are getting away with stuff like wallpaper and so forth. Would just a scanner band suffice on products without raising hackles at Universal?

[WittgenTT5/Rstein]

I've seen friends of mine using the Browning and UnderArmor logos on their sale embroidery stuff without contacting the companies. I've warned them that copyright infringement is a big deal, and they don't seem to care....
It's really not a safe thing to try. Not that is sounded like you were going to do it.

To get shirts at our university with the department logo, we had to get $8 polo shirts at Old Navy and then take them to the OFFICIAL university monogram department. (which was significantly more than $8) We couldn't go to Joe Schmo's Monogram Shop.

I wonder how people are getting away with stuff like wallpaper and so forth. Would just a scanner band suffice on products without raising hackles at Universal?

Like this?

Found the original pic on a very old KRO thread and made a wallpaper out of it.

[snafu]

...like, I made a video for my major at school that had "Ride of the Valkyries" in it, and within 20 minutes I got hit with a copyright notice. Dude, it's classical music. The guy has been dead for 300 years. I thought it was considered public domain. What they were yelling about was that the music track was traced to ONE SPECIFIC ORCHESTRA. Okey dokey.
I guess they let me get away with it because I had marked the video "for educational purposes" and they stated they could put ads all over the damn place and I couldn't do sh*t about it.
Can you just use a logo and put "Knight Rider, KITT, all property of NBC Universial, etc"?

[msKEN]

Believe it or not the defunct company Activision held the american distribution license for Knight Rider games up until recently, it finally expired and Lego Dimensions acquired the rights. Davilex had foreign distribution rights but then was purchased by a small mobile company that made a game for iOS a few years back that interestingly only lasted for a year on the store before it was removed.

[msKEN]

NBC UNIVERSAL is very relaxed with its fans and its older properties that aren't being used. They don't typically come after fan art, fan fiction, fan ran websites, musicians who cover the songs, replica builders, and etc. As fans we've been VERY lucky in that regard.

Making and selling unofficial merchandise on the other hand if it catches their attention they will come for you. Sometimes they give you a choice you can either pay the license fee on the spot or immediately ciest and desist. Other times they come full force, especially if say you aquire stolen KITT molds from the universal effects department.

NBCU more then anything defends the name and logos from the show where a profit is concerned. A misconception is that NBCU trademarked KITT's likeness. This is not true, Pontiac denied that trademark in the 80s bearing that KITT was far to simular to the Pontiac Trans Am. They [NBCU] do however own the copyright on the unique parts like the exterior bumper and custom interior.

[Ginnie]

Sorry for my slow reply, its been a hectic week. Thanks for taking the time to respond. All great info and all pretty much confirming what I had thought but sort of hoped wouldn't be the case. Very interesting info msKen on the misconception of NBCU trademarking KITT's likeness. Cheers for this.