Popular Theme Mini Sessions Canceled

Unique Christmas Theme Mini Session - Canceled

Have you started thinking about your family's Christmas card and what picture you want to put on your card?  Well, it's that time of year many families are starting to think about this as well as photographers coming up with creative and unique ways to make a memorable Christmas portrait. 

​If you were on Facebook last week you may have seen many family photographers advertising Grinch portrait sessions. What a cool idea; right.  It’s perfect for the holidays – it would make the best Christmas card and it’s unusual and unique.  It seems like everyone could see the great possibilities as well.  Within days of posting the theme session on her business Facebook page, an Arkansas photographer was getting so many calls for her theme portrait session she booked out quickly and had to initiate a waiting list for next year.  

People were also contacting her from outside of your local area inquiring about the theme Christmas sessions.  As a small business owner, it’s awesome having potential clients clamoring at your door wanting your products and services.  Many photographers recognized the great possibilities of doing these types of sessions and began advertising them on their business page. 
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​The popularity of the Christmas session rose so quickly and to the point many photographers were advertising these sessions, using the pictures from the Arkansas photographer instead their own photographs.  So many photographers were using the Arkansas photographer pictures, that Photo Stealers got involved and shared a post on their Facebook page advising photographers to stop.  The advice was use your own images and stating "these are not my images" is not sufficient.   

Which bring us to today.  Yesterday, Today.com, People.com, PopSugar, and others shared the Arkansas photographer's story (https://www.google.com/search?q=kim+durham+photography+grinch&rlz=1C1CHBD_enUS795US795&oq=kim+durham+photography+grinch&aqs=chrome..69i57.5872j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8) about the Grinch sessions and how the photographer came up with the idea.  Unfortunately, a few hours later, the photographer received a cease and desist letter for violating Intellectual Property Rights from the Dr. Seuss Enterprises.  Which meant she had to cancel all the scheduled portrait sessions she had booked and remove all the images associated with the planned sessions.    
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​The moral of this story is to learn as much as possible before creating themed session to ensure to follow trademark regulations and laws.  What are your thoughts?