Same situation. Though a bottle label (and the bottle itself) may contain trademark and copyrightable elements, I might be tempted to view any particular one as incidental to the overall composition. A friend of mine created some posters of beer bottles; she indeed wrote to each of the manufacturers for permission. Most were willing (perhaps bottlers are not so deluged with IP requests as other producers in the info trade) . Did she need to? Maybe. Shapes as well as colors are eligible for trademark protection, and those companies which most value their trade dress are most likely to be concerned if their product is depicted "on the same shelf" as another considered by them to be inferior. Another issue here: while my friend arranged the bottles on her own shelf (I forgot to ask who built the shelf) any compilation copyright (for the arrangement) belongs to her. But in the case of the bottles in the store, the store owners might hold some sort of copyright in the arrangement. While placing bottles on the shelf might be viewed as a strictly utilitarian arrangement, one might view the bottle arranger's contribution as an original expression. I suppose there is an implied license to the liquor store from the beverage industry to create this derivative work since by promoting sales, shelving is desired by both: Section 113c says "copyright does not include any right to prevent the making, distribution, or display of pictures or photographs of such [useful] articles in connection with advertisements or commentaries related to the distribution or display of such articles." More on compilations and derivative work later.