As a t-shirt enthusiast and t-shirt line owner I frequently browse the web to see what types of t-shirts are being sold and which styles are potentially popular. I am constantly amazed at the shirts with celebrities, corporate parody logos, and popular phrases from various decades. How do you determine if it is legal to sell a particular design on a t-shirt? I wish I had an easy answer to that question but will provide a brief summary and point out some resources to continue the very tricky area of t-shirt copyright and trademarks. This is a huge topic and I will cover it over a few articles but I will start out discussing the basics of copyright and trademark. What most people seem to be interested in when deciding what to put on a t-shirt is “What designs can’t be copyrighted”.
The U.S. Copyright Office states that Names, titles, and short phrases or expressions are not subject to copyright protection. Even if a name, title, or short phrase is novel or distinctive or if it lends itself to a play on words, it cannot be protected by copyright.. Related to t-shirt designs, this includes: 1. Names of products or services 2. Names of businesses, organizations, or groups 3. Names of pseudonyms of individuals (including pen name or stage name) 4. Titles of works 5. Catchwords, catchphrases, mottoes, slogans, or short advertising expressions. So then what does Copyright protection cover? Copyright protection under the copyright code (title 17, section 102, U.S. Code) extends only to “original works of authorship.â€
So ideas and concepts cannot be protected. HOWEVER, its not quite so simple. We can not forget about our good friend Mr. Trademark. U.S Trademark law states that there are Some brand names, trade names, slogans, and phrases that may have protection relating to unfair competition, or state or federal trademark laws. Federal trademark laws cover trademarks and service marks that identify or distinguish one source of goods or services from another. Trademarks of service marks may include words, phrases, symbols or designs. The Copyright Office and US Patent and Trademark Office are seprate offices and serve different functions.
How do I search for existing trademarks?
You can visit the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office search page here. From this page click search, then on the next page: “New User Form Search (Basic)” and enter your criteria. Using the search example of I Love New York you will see 36 registered trademarks. Here you can view the details of all 36 records. One of the most famous in these results is for I [Love] NY, an image that is commonly seen t-shirts.
Protecting Your T-shirt Design
So you’ve perfected your latest T-shirt through painstaking hours of endless adjustments…and somebody’s stolen it. That can’t be fair, can it? No, it can’t be.
Protecting your work is one of those steps which many businesses will completely ignore through inconvenience. But those very same businesses could eventually be left to resent the decision. How do you protect your designs?
It’s possible to trademark your designs, but ultimately, a huge deficit in your budget. A more viable option is to copyright them. If you notice anybody stealing your work – most commonly practiced on sites such as CafePress where they don’t have to own their own equipment – it’s possible to send a C&D (Cease and Desist) to the support team of the website. This should invite an investigation in to the activity and providing that you can prove that the design has been unlawfully stolen, you’ll be entitled to every last penny back.
Copywriting is protective in the sense that it stops people taking your work and re-distributing it directly. But it can’t be relied on for issues where somebody has modified it significantly.
These are murky waters for your T-shirt design business, but the lenience is partly down to the fact that many designs are unknowingly similar. We all take inspiration from somewhere, and unless a design is clearly and obviously stolen, it can be very hard to prove in the legal sense – and expensive too.
