Hello all! In the spirit of the upcoming season, I wanted to share something I learned recently about copyright in Santa Claus images. It is a popular IP myth that Coca Cola owns/has copyright or trademark over popular images of Santa Claus because of their highly successful 1931 ad campaign. I actually believed this until just last week. However after a quick internet search confirmed that the generic modern images of Santa (long white beard, big belly, red suit) was already an artistic and literary fixture in the 1800s and is now part of the public domain.
Thus, while Coca Cola does own the images in their ad campaigns and on their products, they do not own the generic Santa images we see so often during the holiday season.
I thought this was a great example of how copyright lies not in the idea but the execution.
I have enclosed some links with further information:
https://www.copibec.ca/en/nouvelle/138/did-you-know-coca-cola-doesn-t-have-a-copyright-on-santa-
https://lapixa.com/who-owns-santa-claus/
Feel free to comment and have a happy holiday season everyone!
Copyright & Social Media
Communications Law