Oh, I have no doubt the big corporation holds all the cards in this situation. Like I said, I know next to nothing about copyright law, but I do think it's generally the case when it is something unique like this, that strictly speaking they would need to obtain the rights from the original creator. I don't know about elsewhere, but in the US, I believe things like colors and "Apple" tend to be trademarked rather than copyrighted for exactly that reason, although I don't know what the difference would be in terms of enforcement.

Oh, that's interesting! It seems like if anyone could make that claim it would be Chevy.