Slave Girl Leia for Charity

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Leia Slave Girl.jpgSo I'm looking around for interesting intersections of intellectual property, charity and superheroic identity when I run across Heroes4Hire, a company that markets superhero impersonators for charitable events and stag parties.
And, oh yeah, for corporate events, but stag parties is funnier.
You've probably already spotted the IP issue facing H4H. In fact, so have they, which is why they seed the site with things designed to offset their unlicensed exploitation of others' intellectual property. For example, each character has a small disclaimer at the bottom of the page along these lines: "Lookalike Star Wars Leia Slave Girl is a custom-fan-made costume to resemble that of the film version - we are not affiliated with Lucasfilm or any other entertainment company."
The page for the Dalek takes it a step further. H4H advises the customer to contribute to the BBC's own charity, presumably as an act of atonement.
Using a Dalek or Slave Girl Leia in a charitable fundraiser may sound innocent enough, but it raises similar IP issues. Check out the language in the Heroes4Hire promo: "To make your charity event stand out from others . . . ." That's precisely one of the functions of a protected trademark--to distinguish the brand. Likewise the Dalek "built to raise funds for charity," which captures the link between fundraising and the marketplace.
The above H4H is outside the U.S.; there's also one in Texas that deals with these issues in another way: by not describing the characters by their actual names.



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