Legal Use of an image and a brand ?

[AMBRO_MFG]

We have a client that wants us to print a picture of a Nike sneaker on their shirt.  Now we've had our share of people asking us to print "The Swoosh" or the words "Just Do It" etc ... and we're smart enough to know that this is a NO GO, as it is licensed trade mark stuff, and we want know part of that beast.  But this request brought up a few questions.  For example, the photo of the sneaker that they want printed is a photo that they took.  So it's their sneaker and they took the picture.  However, the sneaker does bear the Nike Name and Logo, so if we print it it, we will in effect be printing the swoosh and the Nike name.  Right now we're leaning towards "no" because the client is not Nike.  Does anyone have any insight on if trademark law applies when you are simply asked to screen print a photo of an item that bears the trademark?

[Frog]

We have a client that wants us to print a picture of a Nike sneaker on their shirt.  Now we've had our share of people asking us to print "The Swoosh" or the words "Just Do It" etc ... and we're smart enough to know that this is a NO GO, as it is licensed trade mark stuff, and we want know part of that beast.  But this request brought up a few questions.  For example, the photo of the sneaker that they want printed is a photo that they took.  So it's their sneaker and they took the picture.  However, the sneaker does bear the Nike Name and Logo, so if we print it it, we will in effect be printing the swoosh and the Nike name.  Right now we're leaning towards "no" because the client is not Nike.  Does anyone have any insight on if trademark law applies when you are simply asked to screen print a photo of an item that bears the trademark?

In the car game, the big three all demanded a licence fee from the shop I used to work when they did shirts of original art of cars that displayed their various logos.

[blue moon]

it's a lot more complicated than what I am about to say, but ballpark is you can not print it. Nike name and the swoosh are IP of Nike and it can not be printed/reproduced for profit without their permission.
The picture taken is copyrighted by who ever took the picture. Nobody else, including Nike, can reproduce it without the photograpeher's consent.
IP (Intellectual Property/trademark) and copyright are two different things.

The exception would be if this is a parody of Nike or the particular sneaker model. Or. . . if it is an artistic statement. For a parody to be valid, it would have to be addressing Nike as a factory or the sneaker(s). Having a funny comic that plays off of the Nike name or looks would not do it. For example, you could make fun of their product not being good (tiger playing with Nike clubs and the slogans says something "he'd be better off with callaway") and that would be OK because it's making fun of the brand or product.   
something like this is a no go:
http://www.biswajitsarkar.com/blog/intellectual-property/copyright/is-parody-spoofing-legal-under-copyright-law.html
it is not a parody of the starbucks brand or their product.

does this help?

pierre

[Maxie]

http://podcast.inksoft.com/73dd3520
Marshall Atkinson has a blog about Trademark and Copyriht Laws.
Worth listening to.

[merchmonster]

We had a Fried chicken company want to print a pic of a rooster wearing nikes and a Nike box. I said no go on that but if you airbrush that out it should be fine. They said nah and walked. Not sure if they were narcs

[mk162]

We had a Fried chicken company want to print a pic of a rooster wearing nikes and a Nike box. I said no go on that but if you airbrush that out it should be fine. They said nah and walked. Not sure if they were narcs

Are there folks that really go around and do this?  I've heard of it during the super bowl and world series in the cities that are playing, but not just anytime of the year hoping to get someone on shoes on a chicken.  It would make more sense if they came in and asked you to print a bunch of bootleg NIKE shirts with the swoosh or something like that.

Most people don't understand copyrights and trademarks.  I had a customer that had to keep telling a guy that you can't make replica jerseys for Cam Newton...even if they were on t-shirts and not jerseys.  He thought since it was a t-shirt it was fine.

[Frog]

I often get, especailly with family Disney trips, the "but we aren't selling them".
Yes, but I am.

[GoWestRob]

We had a Fried chicken company want to print a pic of a rooster wearing nikes and a Nike box. I said no go on that but if you airbrush that out it should be fine. They said nah and walked. Not sure if they were narcs

Are there folks that really go around and do this?  I've heard of it during the super bowl and world series in the cities that are playing, but not just anytime of the year hoping to get someone on shoes on a chicken.  It would make more sense if they came in and asked you to print a bunch of bootleg NIKE shirts with the swoosh or something like that.

Most people don't understand copyrights and trademarks.  I had a customer that had to keep telling a guy that you can't make replica jerseys for Cam Newton...even if they were on t-shirts and not jerseys.  He thought since it was a t-shirt it was fine.

I don't know about narcs that are this agressive, but I've heard that image copyright owners will seed the internet with high-res quality photos or artwork and leave it dangling there for someone to take and use without permission.  They'll have the lawsuit ready to go when they find someone who took the forbidden fruit.

[mk162]

I don't know about narcs that are this agressive, but I've heard that image copyright owners will seed the internet with high-res quality photos or artwork and leave it dangling there for someone to take and use without permission.  They'll have the lawsuit ready to go when they find someone who took the forbidden fruit.

If there is any sort of news story or anything on this I would love to read it...Stuff like that fascinates me.

[ffokazak]

Has anyone actually ever been sued or had legal action taken against them for printing a shirt that mimics a corporations branding?

Im under the impression that it is far far too expensive to actually pursue a legal battle against a small clothing company ( or screen printer for that matter) who prints 150 shirts that mimic a Nike™ Swoosh™

I have heard of cease and desist letters for sure, and have in fact received some from the NHL for one of my own companies that "Borrowed"  the Washington Caps logo. The NHL sent a letter, said stop it ( We did, and wrote them back and stated that we had stopped) and that was the end of it.  We ran maybe 200 shirts total... 

They had zero interest in who printed the shirts, and just wanted to make sure we abided by their letter. 

This would have obviously been a different story had we printed 250K of this design, and were making a lot of money.

So curious to hear if any one else has actually gone to court over this?

[merchmonster]

i just assume everyone with a copyright violation request is a narc 

[mk162]

i just assume everyone with a copyright violation request is a narc 

I assume they haven't seen the ball since kickoff

[brandon]

Has anyone actually ever been sued or had legal action taken against them for printing a shirt that mimics a corporations branding?

Im under the impression that it is far far too expensive to actually pursue a legal battle against a small clothing company ( or screen printer for that matter) who prints 150 shirts that mimic a Nike™ Swoosh™

I have heard of cease and desist letters for sure, and have in fact received some from the NHL for one of my own companies that "Borrowed"  the Washington Caps logo. The NHL sent a letter, said stop it ( We did, and wrote them back and stated that we had stopped) and that was the end of it.  We ran maybe 200 shirts total... 

They had zero interest in who printed the shirts, and just wanted to make sure we abided by their letter. 

This would have obviously been a different story had we printed 250K of this design, and were making a lot of money.

So curious to hear if any one else has actually gone to court over this?

I worked at a place in Seattle about 20 years ago that had a wall of cease and desist letters but every time they received a new one we just modified the design ever so slightly. The Coors Lite went to Bud which went to Amstel which went Sam Adams and so on. If I remember correctly it went on for about 7 or 8 years but I left to start my own business by that point.

[mooseman]

We don't do anything relative to any trademarked etc image not because we are afraid of the boogeyman but because we don't need to bust our a$$ for some asshat that wants 2 or 3 shirts for some stupid reason. Printing in large volume is asking for trouble.
I mention the boogeyman because I think we as an industry, are making way more than this than it deserves.
yes it is wrong to steal someone's work and i get the integrity control thing surrounding a company image / logo but I can't believe Nike is sitting there with 10,0000 lawers looking for little fish like me making $50.00 bucks from their logo.
My shop is less than 50 miles from Syracuse University. SU has trademarked the letters S & U simple athletic style letters not unique to the university but they own the letters how the hell does this happen and can Syracuse prove they created the letters in question. Google Syracuse trademarks / images it it will come up. There is bogus Syracuse stuff everywhere, first stop Walmart.
Ethics should always apply but screw the boogeyman thing.
mooseman