i wishing to start my own clothing line. However i feel well unprepared with doing this so i proceed with caution and hopefully you guys can help me better understand.
Logo: Check, (Camel with wings)
Name: i was wanting to call it Tweed or maybe HUMP. however a friend brought it to my attention that the words are vulgar and would hurt sales… How do you guys feel about this?
How do i go about the whole copy right thing when it comes to putting images that i dont necessarily own or didnt create myself on to a shirt and then selling them?
Can i take a picture off of the internet (say a picture of Oprah) alter it in PS and then put it on a shirt and sell it?
Now i do realize i cant just take the Coca-Cola brand name how its exactly written on the can itself and sell it.
Can someone break it down to me like im 4… maybe even 3 lol
Tweed is vulgar? Maybe I’m not up-to-date on slang words. HUMP might be considered a little off-color when used in certain ways, but in conjunction with a camel, no.
There is no way to legally do it short of getting permission from the copyright owners. This is precisely the kind of thing that copyright laws are intended to prohibit.
There are two problems with this one.
First, most every photo on the Internet, with the exception of photos in the public domain or photos released by their owners for this kind of use, have copyright protections that prohibit using them without permission. You might get away with it for a time, but if any of your products became moderately popular, you could soon find yourself in legal and financial trouble. You would also likely not meet with a whole lot of enthusiasm from retailers carrying your products since they too could potentially place themselves in legal jeopardy by helping you sell merchandise with known copyright violations.
Second, using images of celebrities is more complicated. In the U.S., if you use an image of a celebrity to create personal artwork, it’s OK. If you shoot a photo of a celebrity (a paparazzi photo) for use in the media, it’s OK since it’s protected by the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. If you use that artwork to help sell products or services, you could be sued by the celebrity for infringing on what’s termed their “right of publicity” which varies from state to state in the U.S. You might also be sued for various kinds of intellectual property violations, but again, it’s not necessarily clear-cut.
I’m not an attorney, but I’m quite sure an attorney would advise you not go down this road. Even when you might be more or less on the right side of the law, would you really want to be hauled into court by Oprah and face a group of attorneys with limitless funds who would be trying to nail your butt to the wall.
tough question ive been asked plenty of times but it really is street wear. something to wear whenever you feel to be honest. out to a bar, bbq, football game, etc. Anyone could honestly wear a simple hoodie with a logo to any event.
thank you for your answers! Pretty much as of now im playing it safe by using images that i bought online, which possibly i should still be careful with. Im even thinking about using that image as a reference and then paying an artist to personally make that image for mine to keep and have as a brand myself.
Im the guy who tries to put stuff together without reading the instructions, so thats my flaw ill have to be honest about. However im thrown off on how deciding a name, logo, etc is not square one?