April 25, 2008
When starting your t-shirt business you might come across confusing legal issues. The legalities of business can’t be over looked. A lot of the legal info you find while conducting your research might seem confusing, so we’re gonna break some of it down so it’s easier to understand. Make sure you know your stuff before you get into legal trouble!
Copyright and Trademarks
A copyright is the right to copy and gives the copyright holder the right to be credited for the work, to determine who may adapt the work to other forms, financially benefit from it, and other related rights. A trademark is a type of intellectual property, and typically a name, word, phrase, logo, symbol, design, image, or a combination of these elements. You should copyright your t-shirt designs and trademark your label name to protect them legally. But, don’t worry about copyright and trademark too early. Until your work is being widely purchased or distributed, copyright may not even be necessary to launch your t-shirt business.
Images from the internet
Don’t use ‘em without permission. Images from the internet are copyright, unless you took them, in which case you own the copyright. There are ways of beating the system though: If you use a basic, generic picture, for example, one of a dog, you’d probably get away with it in some cases. Is there is nothing peculiar about the picture you use and it looks like something you could very well have taken, most likely the copyright holder won’t really be able to distinguish the image and wouldn’t waste time trying to hunt you down. On the other hand if you use a picture that’s very specific or complex, for example, a picture of a white pit-bull with black spots wearing a football helmet, you’ll get caught easily.
Famous quotes
When using quotes in t-shirt designs you should quote the person who originally said it. Don’t pretend like you made it up. Just give them their credit, even if it’s in super tiny print. You definitely wouldn’t like it if you said something funny one day and saw it on a bunch of t-shirts the next, without any recognition for it.
Popular characters
Never use them unless you have a license to do so. Just make up your own characters or get someone else to. Simple as that. Using popular characters in an attempt to sell quick is just plain lazy and uncreative.
Writing and signing contracts
Learn the ins and outs of contracts before writing or signing them or you’ll get screwed. Also, don’t sign a contract for anything until you’ve weighed out the options of having the contract signed or not, as well as how you’d feel about your decision to sign when a few months go by. Find some sample contracts online or in books so you get an idea of how they should be formatted.
Parodying familiar figures and icons
It’s allowed thanks to the right to parody. Just don’t get too crazy with it. When your parodying becomes overly offensive you may get attacked and or kidnapped by the entourage of figure you’re parodying. Just beware.
Political figures
In most cases they can be used. It’s no wonder there are so many political t-shirts on the market. The only situation you wouldn’t be safe using them is if you find a famous photo of a political figure. The photo would most likely be recognized as x photographer’s famous photo, so you’d be in hot water. In addition to political figures you can also use flags, coat of arms, and national symbols.
(Disclaimer: We are not lawyers. This info is intended to keep you aware of legal rules of business. Check with an actual lawyer for more information on what legal processes to follow for your business.)
WHAT LEGAL ISSUES ARE YOU COMING ACROSS?
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What if you want to put famous people on your t-shirts? Like of Stevie Wonder or Ray Charles? Are there limits to doing that?
If, for example, you wanted to just illustrate a picture of Ray Charles on a shirt, there really isn't a problem with that, if you're loosely basing it on a photo. But, if you copy a well recognized photo of him, you could get into legal trouble with the photographer who took the picture. A lot of brands do go ahead and copy a well recognized photo of a famous person, and get away with it, but I wouldn't risk copying and pasting a famous photo.
Also, if you're a small brand and you copied a photo of a famous person, you probably wouldn't get in trouble for it. But if you're making millions of dollars off of the shirt designs and your brand gets really popular, you could risk getting in trouble.
Why wouldn't I trademark my phrase or slogan before showing it to the public? Won't somebody else trademark it? Is this becouse common law has as much legal protection as trademarks?
As far as trademarking a phrase/slogan, you could do it before it's being used, if it's in your budget, you have a solid plan for how it (the t-shirts) will sell, you know that this slogan has the potential to be big, and you're 100% sure that you will be keeping and using the phrase/slogan.
The problem is, if you trademark your phrase/slogan too early, you might decide after a month or two that you don't wanna use the slogan. If you didn't really make any sales in that timespan, then getting the trademark would have been a waste of money. I've faced a situation a couple times, in which I was so close to trademarking a slogan and brand name, only to end up not using it.
Common law does have some legal protection (mainly for copyrights) but in some cases, common law will not be enough protection, like if your in a legal dispute with an established company. I personally wouldn't trademark the phrase until it really starts showing great sales potential, but if you have the funds, go for it. You can actually begin filing for a trademark at http://www.legalzoom.com. And in the case that you decide you no longer want to use the trademark, you can stop the trademarking process and get your money refunded (BEFORE the trademark is officially processed). Hope that answered your question.
Three questions assuming my shirts would be widely purchased:
1) For famous quotes, is it legal to put a quote from a well known movie on a shirt if I give someone credit. If so, who should I give credit to?
2) Can I put an image from a movie on a shirt if I give someone credit? If so, who gets credit?
3) Do the rules change if I’m parodying the quote or image from a movie?
thanks,
David
Can i use the face and quote of a former president or govnor in a carricature on a tshirt?
Can I just buy blank t-shirts from fruit of the loom, hanes,etc.,
throw on a slogan, i thought of and it be legal?
Is it legal to use a famous person’s name in a slogan for a t-shirt?
I want to use a (face only) photo of my 14-year-old granddaughter as the logo for my business (kinda like Wendy’s did only using a real photo). I also want to use the nickname I call her as the company name. My son does not have legal custody of her and her mother is a…ahem…well…anyway, what are the legalities here? I am submitting my items for sale at a large chain at its suggestion this week and hope to know ASAP. Thx!
Hi, thank you for the info but I want to know more specifications: If I use a picture from the internet, for example a picture of a famous singer but I modify that picture so it’s really not the same as the original with a program like Photoshop, is it legal if I plan to sell those T-shirts? and if I add a line of the singer’s song?
Thanks for the info. We just created a parody Tshirt using a recognized musician’s name based on an internet/twitter meme… I don’t know if it will sell enough to cause a stir but still we didn’t want to be too risky.. parody is the way to go :)
if i use a picture of a political figure and edit it in photoshop to be like the silhouette or something like that…e.g. like the marlboro man or elvis images you see, is that ok?
thank you
Hi, I am designing t shirts for a company that is using images/logos from popular movies/shows, like Jurassic Park, Full House, etc. They tell me what they want, and I design them. I’m trying to write a contract for them to sign to basically say once I turn the files over to them, I can’t get into any trouble with any legal stuff for them using these images…even though I was their designer. What should I write??
How do I find out if the phrase I want to use has been copyrighted or trademarked? I haven’t seen it out there but i want to make sure.
Ok, you say not to trademark until I see a profit or else I’ll will be wasting my money. But what if someone else takes the label/brand and trademarks it for themselves is there anything I can do about that?
Great tips. This is another perspective of opening a business that I will have to look in to.