feline fanatic

Harley Davidson is also draconian in protecting it's logos and trademarks. I heard of a gal who was trying to sell or maybe displaying an HD T-shirt quilt at a large rally. keep in mind she had already paid for these t-shirts so HD got their piece of the pie at the original point of sale. She then cut them up and made the quilt, I think she was using it as a sample to make and sell HD T-shirt quilts for people who would give her their old HD shirts and pay her to make the quilt. HD people showed up at her booth and confiscated the quilt! Don't know if she ever got it back or not. I think her mistake was doing it at a big rally where HD had a presence. Had she chosen a small local venue like a swap meet where HD wasn't there, she would not have been harassed by them. As Dunster mentioned, these entities have very deep pockets. They will take you to court and drag it out until you run out of money or give up, even if you are within the law (of copyright and trademark infringement).

patricej

that was a case for 9 1 1 - so the police could confiscate the HD people.

Onebyone

I read about some woman who had Mickey Mouse tattoo and she posted a picture of it online. Disney said no. The last I heard she was going to court. I have no idea how that will be resolved. The tattoo inker who copied the image was involved too. My embroidery machine has Disney designs built in and I was told I could use them on items to sell. I never have but I do see lots of embroiders use Disney designs at craft shows.

EasyPeezy

So true. Not worth the risk.

nativetexan

this reminds me of McDonald's hamburger chain telling people in Britain (maybe Scotland) they couldn't use McDonald name in their businesses. sigh, it was their family name. what should they use? the world gets crazy at times.

themadpatter

! They sued a restaurant called McDarma's in Santa Cruz for trademark infringement.Yeah, soooo many people are going to confuse your hamburgers with vegetarian food, Ronald. https://people.com/archive/sued-by-m...-vol-29-no-17/

I was at Apple Hill, which is a semi-local fall themed tourist trap, and one of the vendors there did Disney art that was kind of like multilayered animation cels but stiff, like shrinky-dinks. I was so tempted to ask him how he got around Disney's trademark protection police, but my son was a vendor and I didn't want to stir anything up that might reflect on him. If I had been the vendor, I would have jumped right in, lol.

Iceblossom

It's a bit of a sticky issue. I say it is fine to sell crafted items made with licensed fabric but for sports teams I would have a disclaimer that these are not officially licensed products although the fabric is.

One thing to keep in mind is that the fabric has been licensed and made. You are not digitizing or drawing or otherwise "stealing" the image. That's definitely against the rules, say I wanted to make a fabric with an area map of Seattle including the surrounding cities. I could get the grid picture in many different legal ways, but I can't use an unchanged map or the City of Seattle Logo without getting their specific permission.

Some teams/groups are fussier than others. Sometimes that involves copyright protection so that their products do not become generic -- that's why Coca Cola sends out secret shoppers to go to fast food chains and ask for a Coke and why they are supposed to say "we have Pepsi".

Legal Zoom has some nice breakdowns of issues that concern us:
https://info.legalzoom.com/can-make-...ric-21253.html

Always nice when what I think agrees with what other people think

I have to admit, at least one of my Seahawk shirts is not an officially licensed product, yet it is legally sold just not as "official merchandise of the NFL". I started my career in the creative department of a large advertising agency and am a big believer in copyright protection -- but I'm also a huge believer of personal use, I'm a little less certain when it comes to sales.