Using a trademark for personal wear

[mooseman]

Let's take Disney as an example, can I create Mickey Mouse in embroidery not to sell it,not give it away but to only wear it my self, personal use only. While Disney may not like it not sure there is anything they can do about it.
What is your opinion.
mooseman

[blue moon]

As I understand, personal use is ok. 'not a lawyer though so be careful what you do with that info!

Pierre

[mooseman]

Thanks Pierre,
That is my understanding and discovery so far also.
mooseman

[mimosatexas]

No damages if you aren't selling it so nothing to sue for, and wouldnt be worth what the company would have to pay a lawyer anyway. At worse you could get a cease and desist, but if its just one shirt and not being advertised and sold online or in some other public way the chances of getting "caught" are basically zero.

[Sbrem]

My very first t-shirt print was a linoleum block print of Mickey, I made just the one for myself, in 1969; so far, so good...

Steve

[Inkworks]

It's okay as long as you don't post on a forum about it

[mk162]

Also, you have to get busted for it.  I know that sounds bad it's honest.  I wouldn't post it on your business facebook page since that would either mean an endorsement from that company(like McDonalds and happy meal toys), or you were printing for them(in which case you might get a letter).

I can't really explain what I am trying to say there, I hope it makes sense.

[mooseman]

Actually you are making sense.
Here is my mission if I decide to get off my ass and go for it.
A very large casino recently opened in my neck of the woods. We tried to get their tee shirts business, embroidery business etc never even got a reply to e-mails, phone calls etc even after they advertised for all local vendors to make them selves known...we want to support the community blaw blaw blaw and all we can locally. that crap evaporated soon as they got the OK from the locals to build and licence from the state.
 
OK so me being the capitalist pig that I am I went into their store and had a real good look around. They have some nice hats polos and some printed stuff with their logo on it.

There is a rack or two of kind of nice jackets with absolutely nothing on them, no left chest or jacket back.
So I am thinking I will make me a nice  jacket with some fine full back embroidery on it that looks exactly like their logo and wear it in and see what happens.  I am a frequent sucker I mean guest , at this fine establishment and already one of their "valued guests" .
Then dance my a$$ into their fine store and see if they would like to purchase a few thousand.
Thus the purpose of my initial question on using a trademarked logo.
mooseman

[mk162]

That is fine.  I had a friend that used to build websites for companies first and then try to sell them to them.  It was a terrible idea since he was building sites on spec and frankly devaluing his work and in most cases never getting a call back even.

We did the same exact thing with the Wizard of Oz.  Did a really cool drawn version and sent a person wearing it down to the CNN center(back in the days of Ted Turner) and they ended up buying a ton of them. 

[tpitman]

I've done a few motorcycle-themed shirts for myself and one of my repulsive sidekicks over the years. He was out west on a long family vacation last year and saw a shirt at the Harley store in Sturgis. Single color front print on a reddish color, but they didn't have his size. He sent me a text message with a photo off his iPhone. I did an autotrace in Illustrator from the photo he sent and reset the type. Printed one for him as a surprise when he got home, and one for me. He was at some shindig wearing it when someone told him his shirt was copyrighted or something and gave him some crap about it. I think he told them I'd printed it instead of lying and telling them he'd bought it at Sturgis. Dumbass.
Only other thing I did was try to buy the shirt from the "doorman" at the Boot Hill Saloon one year in Daytona that said "I Work Here". He wouldn't give it up, so I bought one in the store and printed "I Work Here" on the right front chest to match the one he was wearing.

[screenxpress]

My very first t-shirt print was a linoleum block print of Mickey, I made just the one for myself, in 1969; so far, so good...

Steve

I'd guess you're grandfathered (maybe great) by now.

[Dottonedan]

Let's take Disney as an example, can I create Mickey Mouse in embroidery not to sell it,not give it away but to only wear it my self, personal use only. While Disney may not like it not sure there is anything they can do about it.
What is your opinion.
mooseman

There is an artistic law that states you can do (one) and it be legal to do as long as it was unique to anything else and was a one off. meaning, not to be reproduced. Artist get away with doing paintings. In fact, artist at Comic Con antagonize Disney with single drawings of Mickey and other popular Disney characters. They sketch them out on site, pencil them and color them and sell them right in front of Disney people as they walk by. They all know, you can do just one. A single pencil sketch, drawing or even painting is doable, but don't photo copy it. Some even go as far as to make them do notty things.     I have friends that work tho's cons and Disney never even raised so much as an eyebrow.

Your situation is different in that, (more than likely), your customer won't know about those specific laws and could toss you out on your rear. On the other hand, many people do spec work and bring in physical samples to show the potential customer. In fact, happened all the time at Disney with the understanding that the garment sample prints that were not bought...were to be disposed of and not sold or even given away.

Now, those buyers that kept samples in their office all year long...always disposed of them properly at the end of the year, right around Christmas time. 

[Sbrem]

You could make the jacket, and offer it as a gift to the buyer, or "free sample" if you prefer...

Steve