What is an “Artistic Representation”?

 The quick explanation is:

“It is a creative object or work intended to represent an object in the real world.”

Legally it is the artist’s attempt to recreate an object in another medium other than the original. For example:

A 2001 Toyota Corolla Car.

And since we are mainly interested in Arma vs Copyright, we create a 3D model of it. Now we can try and make this model as accurate as possible and pour hundreds of hours into it. BUT it will NEVER actually be a Toyota Corolla Car.  It is not a physical object than can be filled with fuel and driven on a road in the real world.

Making that model is legal.  Its an “Artistic Representation” of the Original Car.

When it stops being legal:

1. What is not legal is using the Toyota Trademark and Brand Names without Authorisation.  That is know as either “unlicensed use of Trademarks.” And if you were to try and claim any sort of association with Toyota with the intent of making money from that implied association you would be guilty of Trademark Infringement.
2. If you were to take the original plans or reverse engineer a real Toyota Corolla Car and start making real world “cloned” parts using their designs and Patented engineering solutions for commercial sale without authorisation. (The caveat here is “Authorisation”.  You need to also consider OEM and Aftermarket parts here.  But that’s deeper than we need to go as we aren’t actually making real cars.)
3. The item you are representing in your work is a Trademarked Item. Eg Mickey Mouse.  Mickey’s shape, characteristic Shorts and shoes as well as his ears are all Trademarks and are protected. See Trademarks again.
4. Derivative Works – Now this gets complicated fast.  A derivative work is something that builds up or uses an existing piece of work as a basis of its creation.  IE you take our hypothetical 2001 Toyota Corolla Car and modify it.  You alter the original model, (which is NOT your property) change the wheels add a roof rack and repaint it.  This is now a derivative.  And depending on the licences the original model was released under… it can be illegal.  You would need specific authorisation from the original IP creator/owner for it to be legal.

There are some very niche and specific examples where the claim of “Artistic Representation” has been legally judged to be “disallowed”. And from what I’ve read these are usually related to creating unlicensed prints of protected established works of art.

To summarise

The 3D model we made isn’t ever going to compete with Toyota.  And if we don’t use Toyota’s Trademarks, Brand names and logos we are completely free - and legal – to make a 3D model of our hypothetical 2001 Toyota Corolla.

Yes, you can try and make this more complicated than it really is. But when you look into it you will see that the previous cases mentioning “Artistic Representations” are typically prosecuted on either Trademark or Patent infringement.  Not Copyright.

Links

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/artistic-representation
https://www.leidenlawblog.nl/articles/trademarks-in-works-of-art-are-allowed

https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/derivative_work