Copyright

johnnysmack

hi, my friend and I are thinking of setting up a little t-shirt selling business, as in we have lots of funny little slogans and catch phrases to put on the tshirts that we think may sell. do we need to, and how do we, copyright the slogans?

johnnysmack

johnnysmack wrote: »

hi, my friend and I are thinking of setting up a little t-shirt selling business, as in we have lots of funny little slogans and catch phrases to put on the tshirts that we think may sell. do we need to, and how do we, copyright the slogans?

Dont bother mate wouldnt be worth the hassle, because you would have difficulty getting the copyright on such things. If the business booms and you have particular slogans selling very well consider it them. Be careful however you dont copy someone elses slogans of someones brand or something like that

When I was a kid i saw a dude with a t-shirt that on the back of the shoulders it said "Shoot that *ucker" without the asterix... I reckon you should bring it back it would be a top seller!

GerardKeating

johnnysmack wrote: »

hi, my friend and I are thinking of setting up a little t-shirt selling business, as in we have lots of funny little slogans and catch phrases to put on the tshirts that we think may sell. do we need to, and how do we, copyright the slogans?

You could take a pcture of each tee-shirt, and get it dated and notarised and store it securily.

Down the line, someone might think up the same slogan, and genuinely think you stole it, you need proof of that you had it first.

Note this might work against you, if they thought of it first.

sneakerfreak

Have wanted to do this for a long time but never got the time and always found that the t-shirts which were a decent price were inferior quality.

I wanted to provide t-shirts at a cheap price but not ones that would disintegrate after a few washes.

Also will you print the designs yourselves or use someone else?
I was looking at small scale and realised that using someone else would be costly as they will charge more for many different designs in small amounts (what I wanted) and charge less for what is easy for them,huge amounts of just a handful of designs.

Do you hope to sell online or on-street or both?

Hope you dont mind me asking,I would just love to be doing this myself.I have so many ideas for shirts lol.

johnnysmack

we're gonna price what it will cost to do it ourselves and if got printing place to do for us, find out which is more suited for us. after all we mite sell none or a million! you never know.

we're thinking on-line. setting up a bebo or facebook and upload pictures of the t-shirts and people can pick what they want then. my friend suggested ebay but not sure if that would work. what do you guys think be best way to go about it?

sneakerfreak

Sounds good,I dunno about e-bay either though,gives them a cheap feel perhaps?I dont like ebay anyway though so im biased.

If you do some Irish orientated designs then you could ask a few retailers here to stock some to gather some interest in them.Give them sale or return on them.

No. 1 t-shirt design should be -

"LETS GET F*CKED UP!

JUST LIKE THE ECONOMY!"

You can have that for free

johnnysmack

Ha ha cheers man.

sneakerfreak

No bother lol

also PM me if you want some stores in Dublin to take some shirts when you get it off the ground

conolan

Slogans (like titles) can't be copyrighted. However designs can be. There is no formal copyright register. Copyright exists once you have created something. Putting the item you have created in a sealed envelope and depositing it a solicitor or similar would be worthwhile.

If you do come up with somehting that is a real dinger and you want it to be your business name, then you trademark it.

suey71

hi. i remember the t.shirt craze of world cup 90. every week there where diferent t.shirts about what happened in the last match, or what dunphy said of charlton. these Tee's where all over the place. i'm sure who ever printed them made a fortune. this could be done again, ie The Economy, the rugby, Biffo anything current. the Tee shirts dont have to be of good quality for these designs as they'd be out of fashion in a week or two, but would recommend good q. t.shirts for better designs. good luck. oh and dont forget the Eric Cantona kung fu kick t.shirts.

Sonnenblumen

conolan wrote: »

Slogans (like titles) can't be copyrighted. However designs can be. There is no formal copyright register. Copyright exists once you have created something. Putting the item you have created in a sealed envelope and depositing it a solicitor or similar would be worthwhile.

If you do come up with somehting that is a real dinger and you want it to be your business name, then you trademark it.

Registered (trademarked) Slogans/strap lines are subject to copyright protection and treated like images. A big car distributor in Ireland discovered this for themselves a few years back.

The registration can be safeguarded and in event of dispute bona fides can be proven by legal/trade mark agent etc. There is a formal process/procedure for applying and completion of registration.

Axwell

Im sure you are aware of them but have you looked on sites like cafepress and spreadshirt? Its so easy now for people to go on and design there own tshirt or whatever, especially if its just a slogan and doesnt require an image being designed. I dont know if tshirts are as viable a business as they used to be and ones with slogans alone tend to be a bit plain for the money they usually cost.

Bellies

Hi there,

This was done a few years back in the USA by 2 students in Boston MA. They are excellent stuff have a few of their T-shirts.

Here have a look at this: http://www.lifeisgood.com/

They're trading as "Life is Good" some of their slogans include:
Off Line-with a stick man smiling & sitting under a sun umbrella.
Half Full- with a print of a pint glass.
Cast Away- With a guy fly fishing.
And many many more.

Class stuff altogether, really inspiring story!

byrne0f56789

Musicians copyright their songs by sending a CD to themselves by registered post. I suppose you could do that with pictures of your t-shirts.