The T-Shirt Business: Copyrights, Trademarks, & You

The T-Shirt Business: Copyrights, Trademarks, & You

The first thing I'd like to say about designing and selling t-shirts, or any other product, is to respect copyrights and trademarks. I have designs that are very close to the line, and I'm aware of that. Knowing what's an infringement, or not, can be very tricky. Technically, a design is copyrighted as soon as it's created. It helps in the case of a court battle to have a registered copyright on your design but it does not guarantee that no one will steal your image.

If you see an image online that you like, and there's no copyright notice - too bad. It's copyrighted to someone and that someone isn't you. You must create your own images from scratch or use images that have released into the public domain. Publication on the web is not the same as being released into public domain. Don't steal.

Images can become public domain for the following reasons: 

They are works of the U.S. Government.

The work was created before copyright law.

The author of the work has released any rights to the work in writing.

The copyright has expired. 

 

Trademarks are a way to identify the works of a person, group, or company. Think of them as a signature. Can you legally use another person's signature? No? Then you can't use the symbol (or catch phrase) they choose as their signature in a design, either. You can use something similar as parody, but be prepared to be challenged on it. You can search to see if there is a trademark on an image (or phrase) at TESS (Trademark Electronic Search System).

Confused? Overwhelmed? It's a lot to take in, but it's what you need to know before selling that first shirt if you're really going to make a business out of t-shirt design.

Resources:

Wikipedia's List of Public Domain Images

U.S. Copyright Office 

U.S. Copyright Office: Definitions 

The United States Patent and Trademark Office

Basic Facts About Trademarks, Including How To Register One (USPTO)