I've done a couple of vintage or antique car images which were accepted, but remember i had to blur out the automobile makers logo on the gas tank of the motorcycle.  I've got an image I wanted to use for a 50s series of cards.  Its a tightly shot image of the tailights on a 1958 De Soto Firesweep.  De Soto a Chrysler brand of cars was marketed from 1929 to 1961 and is no longer producing cars with their different models, the Firesweep, Firedome and so on.   The tailights are unmistakeably one of a kind.  Two questions here really, am I correct in that it's OK to use the image of only that part of the car and although I'm fairly certain I can't use or show any of the trade names in the image or text, can they still be used in the keywords or in my artist's description box?
 
I started to create several versions of this card for age specific, fifty's birthdays, and invites for other 50's related events and after digging through the Wiki and not finding a clear answer decided I'd better ask before I spend a lot of time only to have the reviewrs reject my submissions.  Here's an example which I placed in my private gallery for this question.
 
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/community/viewdetails.asp?pid=784404&aid =140313&ref=cb_card_title
 
Thank you,  Randy
 

Quote from Betty_136243 on Mar 6^th, 2011, 11:43am:

 
I'm aware of slogans or marketing names that are being used currently or recently to market a product, but these are over 50 years in the past.  De Soto and all it's trademarks have likely since expired and no longer active.  Still I'm not using it on the card, but am not sure if it's OK using terms in keywords that a person would find helpful in a search for a specific style or make of a since retired automobile.  I did have an old 40's BMW war motorcycle that they removed the BMW from my keywords, but that is still a current and active trade name.  
 
Thanks for your input.

Quote from Peggy_137160 on Mar 6^th, 2011, 12:14pm:

 
Woops, Ok can modify.  Hit post before I typed in the message.  lol
 
Anyway, kind of thought they might still have the trademarks, but din't think it mattered if your not compering with a brand and sales from it or using it directly in that regard.  One of those grey areas I guess?  I don't have that much problem with the keywords or the artist description, but thought a little more being specific would be a positive thing.  You can use breed names for animals, but cars are different I guess?
 
Thank you, Peggy!

Quote from Sue_132963 on Mar 6^th, 2011, 12:20pm:

 
Sue, I hear you, although there are some images of most of or the whole cars, late 60s camaro for one and a 1956 Chevy Belair and with the reference in the cards to the fifty's in that instance.  There are a lot of absolutely distiguishable tail lights, grilles, hood markings, headlights and so on.  There shouldn't be any issue with these as we're not competing with the car manufacturer but as I can see, there's a lot of inconsistency on this topic.

Well Randy, If it works for you, please let me know... Maybe I'll give it another try.  

Randy, Doreen, and anyone else interested:  I went back and found a couple of the old ones that I had refused.  I have uploaded them into my 'Private Gallery,' so you can go take a look.  Perhaps you can tell me why they were refused for infringement of copy copyright?  
I sure don't have a clue and as I said, it made me give up on my line of 'nifty-fifties' that I had planned...

Randy, No... I had quite a go round with reviewers over this.  But this was a long time ago, right after GCU had a problem with a particular car manufacturer... Perhaps they have come to grips with things a little better now...  Hopefully...

Quote from Randall_140313 on Mar 6^th, 2011, 12:23pm:

 
No, you aren't competing with them, but you ARE using the draw of their name/product to make money.  That's a definite no-no in the eyes of the copyright holder!