NFTs, NFT Teams, Marketing, Business

Can NFTs Show Established Brand Logos in Generative Artwork?

I’m not a lawyer, but I’ve been on 15 generative drop teams and have seen some activity on this!

Photo by Kristian Egelund on Unsplash

Having programmed around 150,000 NFTs to date, I’ve seen pretty much every generative art scenario you can think of. And one issue that crops up on almost every single project I’ve worked on is a discussion of copyright and IP issues related to the NFT artwork referencing existing brands and/or IP. And I’m usually the one bringing this up, if only to protect clients. (I’d estimate I’ve saved clients considerably in this area!)

Generative NFTs are built using layers. (I’ve written extensively on how generative NFT drops work, especially focusing on how the art side of things works. I’ve done this to help NFT drop teams better manage their process and improve chances of success.) And typically, these layers often reference existing brands; it’s just something that artists love to do.

Photo by Pedram Normohamadian on Unsplash. A free image fron Unsplash. But would it be okay to run Snoopy on a NFT character’s shirt?

Imagine that the generative art subject is a character. And one of the layers that we pop onto this character is a shirt. It’s quite natural for an artist to want to…