If you change one word in a slogan of a company, is that copyright infringement?

Question

For example, I want to make a tshirt that says "Grab Hunters by the horns."

Hunters are characters from a videogame.

The slogan is "Grab life by the horns" by Dodge. Thats legal right?

I noticed people reference characters and things from videogames, movies, etc on shirts.. that cant be legal right? For example, "My teddy is an Ewok?"
An Ewok are those bear things from Star Wars..

Thanks for any help.

Answer 1

u call we haul if we can't truck it f*** it

Answer 2

The phrase "Grab life by the horns" was around long before Dodge started using it as a slogan, so making modifications of the phrase, or using that phrase itself for most purposes is fine. What you would probably have trouble with is using "Grab life by the horns" in another car ad, but as I said, Dodge did not invent the phrase.

For another example, how many times have you seen plays on the phrase, "Got milk?" That Milk people have tried to stop people from doing it without any success because the phrase is to simple to be considered unique or distinctive.

Ewok on the other hand is a very distinctive word and is most likely a trademark of Lucasfilms. People using that without permission are likely to be subject to lawsuits.

Answer 3

Copyright does not mean the owner owns the language!

Answer 4

Satire is protected. Go ahead - you'll have no problems.