Acorn Elves has legal protection in the form of a trademark valid not only in the Czech Republic but also throughout the EU.
What does it mean?
Of course, you can make your own acorn elves (and I support this creation as much as possible – see my video tutorial on making acorn elves), you can take photos, draw them and share your creation on the web and social networks. But what is already prohibited (and what the trademark addresses) is the use of acorn elves in commerce and making money from it – you cannot use acorn elves to promote your own or others’ services and products. And you can’t sell products with acorn elves – all of this is covered by the trademark, which I am well taken care of by Jindra Šulcová (a trademark attorney and intellectual property rights consultant). If you are unsure whether you are infringing the acorn elves trademark (perhaps at school, where I encourage acorn elves work in every way possible), feel free to write to me and ask.
In short, the Acorn elves have the same trademark as Walt Disney characters. So please keep that in mind – you won’t use those in advertising either or create and publish another book with the Mickey Mouse in it.
Why do the Acorn Elves have a trademark?
Why did I spend a lot of money to protect the acorn elves? Because I have already invested thousands of hours of my time in them and I see a lot of potential in this creative project of mine and I would not like to see the acorn elves exploited for commercial purposes or for products, which might not be of high enough quality and would spoil their reputation.