Sorry about bringing up an outdated topic. I have been dealing with the same issues for my airbrush work. So many different answers are out there. Ive even talked to navy lawyers about this, and can never get a straight answer. the common answer i get at little kiosks in the mall selling stickers is "royalty-free" vector art.
Copyright question
- Thread starter yogey98
- Start date
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Tom
Administrator
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- Jan 13, 2005
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Randy, I split this into a new topic.
SeilerBird
Well-known member
Why don't you restate your question.yogey98 said:
carson
Well-known member
Good question.... There are probably a few lawyers and para-legals on this forum. Your question is a pure legal matter. I doubt if you could any answer you get on this forum that will hold up in court. Best to get valid real advice from a Copyright lawyer.
SeilerBird
Well-known member
It is a trademark infringement. And you can't do it period unless you become a licensee of whatever symbol you wish to use. It costs money to become a licensee and then you must pay a royalty to the owner of the trademark.yogey98 said:
Songs, pictures and stories get copyrighted. Logo, names and symbols are trademarks. Ideas are patented.
Gary RV_Wizard
Site Team
The short answer is that you cannot unless you get a license from the NFL, MLB, etc. They hold the rights to just about all professional logos and team trademarks and always charge fees for the use of them, so there is no legal loophole to crawl through. It's pretty much the same for college sports logos - they are valuable property that the college and/or its alumni/athletic association owns and markets.
The copyright and trademark law has loopholes for fair use and situations where there is no monetary loss or gain involved, but there is zero leeway if the trademark owner actively maintains his rights and offers licensees for sale.
I have also asked a couple navy lawyers about the logos high schools use that are the exact same as some NFL teams. The common answer I get is "just add a little somehting different to make it your own" still doesnt seem right. For now, I only do custom paint/airbrush for friends and family. Of course I still charge, in the amounts of 12oz increments
Ernie n Tara
Well-known member
I expect that you'll find the NFL or ? at your door immediately you have any success. Copyright is quick and simple (automatic) plus you're talking trademark violation. They probably won't bother liscensing for a small busimess.
Ernie
Ernie
SeilerBird
Well-known member
The schools could possibly have had the logo first. The G for the Green Bay Packers is predated by many universities. How can you trademark something as simple as a horseshoe like Indy uses? And there is the 11th amendment that gives states sovereign immunity. Plus any school using an NFL logo that is close means the NFL will sell lots of their stuff to school members.yogey98 said:
B
braindead
Guest
The Fair Use doctrine applies to trademarks as well as copyright. A search for fair use and trademark will turn up a lot of information (some good/some bad).
Here's the wikipedia page on this specifically: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use_%28U.S._trademark_law%29
Bear in mind that fair use is an affirmative defense and would likely require going to court.
There's a very interesting story related to fair use and copyright about a band (Negativeland) and their album titled U2 (referring to the spy plane, not the band.. even had a graphic of the plan on the cover). I don't recall how long and how expensive it was, but it surely wasn't cheap.
Here's the wikipedia page on this specifically: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use_%28U.S._trademark_law%29
Bear in mind that fair use is an affirmative defense and would likely require going to court.
There's a very interesting story related to fair use and copyright about a band (Negativeland) and their album titled U2 (referring to the spy plane, not the band.. even had a graphic of the plan on the cover). I don't recall how long and how expensive it was, but it surely wasn't cheap.
Chanda
Well-known member
Could you research in Creative Commons for public domain images? BTW, the licensing rules are for protection of your own images, too, and the Creative Commons site has licensing information.
http://creativecommons.org/
http://creativecommons.org/
