Hey I just saw a commercial for Papa John’s Pizza. It culmunated in a Domino’s Pizza pizza guy being surrounded and overwhelmed by Papa John’s pizza guys.
How is it legal for them to show the Domino’s logo in their commercial? I know permission needs to be obtained when using Major League Baseball logos, et cetera. Anybody know the specifics of this?
I think it is legal, not sure though. Don’t Pringles commercials feature those “greasy and bad” bags of Lays potato chips? And some motor oil company that uses Brett Favre in their commercials showed actually bottles of other motor oil.
First of all, it’s not a copyright question; it’s a trademark question.
Is it legal? It all depends on whether Dominos wants to sue. There’s no law against using another person’s product in your own commercial; it’s just generally avoided on the theory that if people see someone else’s logo, you’re selling their product for them.
Yes, even if it fails the taste test – people have a tendency to remember the logo and not the commercial. It’s quite possible that someone could see the Papa John’s commercial and later one only remember it was for Dominoes.
If Dominos wanted to sue for infringement, then a court would have to decide whether Papa John was within its rights. I don’t know what the precedents for this are, but I suspect that if Dominos sued, Papa John would pull the commercial before it got to court and the entire thing would be dropped. Dominos probably won’t bother, since the use of their name – even in this context – will bring in some sales.