Is this Illigal ??? (song lyrics, Jay Z, title, quote, artists)

hangman · 01-02-2006, 07:14 PM

hi, just wondering if anyone knows whether its legal to contain a trademark
in song lyrics if the song is to be commercially released?

ie. if i include a referance to ferrari or mcdonalds for instance, will i be in trouble?

i would have thought not but there is the story of the kinks having to remove the word coca cola from the song lola and replace it with cherry cola !

illusion · 01-02-2006, 07:21 PM

I think that if the song goes big then yes they will either ask you to pay royalties or have you pay them out. But as long as the song never goes big, don't worry

Urban Hat€monger ? · 01-02-2006, 07:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hangman

i would have thought not but there is the story of the kinks having to remove the word coca cola from the song lola and replace it with cherry cola !

That was only because the BBC saw it as advertising which they are not allowed to do.

I don`t think there is anything saying you can`t mention brand names in songs.Obviously if you are going to write a song about how crap a product is they might not be too happy about it but i`ve heard loads of artists mention products before & nobody has said anything about it.

I`m sure if you mentioned coke in a song & it got to No1 they`d see it as free advertising

~~bungalow~~ · 01-02-2006, 07:35 PM

Hell, Jay Z does it all the time.
I think that your fine if you include a product name

illusion · 01-02-2006, 08:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bungalowbill357

I think that your fine if you include a product name

As long as it is not in the song title

TheBig3 · 01-02-2006, 10:47 PM

I don't think so.

01-02-2006, 07:14 PM	#1 (permalink)
hangman Groupie Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 1	Is this Illigal ??? hi, just wondering if anyone knows whether its legal to contain a trademark in song lyrics if the song is to be commercially released? ie. if i include a referance to ferrari or mcdonalds for instance, will i be in trouble? i would have thought not but there is the story of the kinks having to remove the word coca cola from the song lola and replace it with cherry cola !

01-02-2006, 10:47 PM	#6 (permalink)
TheBig3 killedmyraindog Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Boston, Massachusetts Posts: 11,172	I don't think so. __________________ I've moved to a new address

01-02-2006, 07:21 PM	#2 (permalink)
illusion Music Addict Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 43	I think that if the song goes big then yes they will either ask you to pay royalties or have you pay them out. But as long as the song never goes big, don't worry

01-02-2006, 07:35 PM	#4 (permalink)
~~bungalow~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Hot-lanta Posts: 3,140	Hell, Jay Z does it all the time. I think that your fine if you include a product name