Anyone ever trademark something?

[smokinghole]

I have a kick ass geeky tshirt idea. Is it worth getting a trademark and then licencing the design out, or however that works? I was reading today that a trademark is like $400 to be walked through, but I'm sure that involves a company doing the work for you. Is it tough? Any advice before I actually try and do it that might make me think twice?

 

[orangedog]

Very curious about this as well... have something that I've wanted to copyright for a while, just never taken the time to speak with an attorney about it.

 

[Herfin' Harg]

PMs incoming...

 

[HARDWAY17]

Here lies the problem. Trademarking or copyrighting something is a few hundred dollars. The big problem is defending it. If someone decides they want to challenge your mark or release something similar, will you have the capital to defend your idea?

 

[smokinghole]

No. However I am thinking that like in most law related disputes the losing party pays legal fees. I could be wrong with the assumption but even if I get the copyright at least I have that much protection. I'd think its better than going out there with a design for something that can easily be stolen with no copyright.

 

[ilikefishes]

I own a company that has multiple trademarks and copyrights. There is a difference in the cost of the two as well as what they are intended to do. The Copyright is for protecting your Art work and design and a Trademark is for protecting a brand or image. The Copyrights are done easily enough through the Library of Congress. I will tell you that if you do this yourself, do not write them a check, send them a money order. They take FOREVER to get back to you. In fact, just last week I got a notice that they were awarding another Copyright to us from an image I sent in more than 3 years ago.

Trademarks are an entirely different story. I would not recommend trying to do a trademark yourself. It takes years to actually get the trademark and it takes a lot of research and effort. I personally hired a Patent/Trademark attorney. If the brand is something that you are going to be manufacturing for an extended period of time, than you definitely want a Trademark.

Now onto T-shirts. DON'T DO IT. I started a t-shirt line several years ago. I found a screenprinter and we were going really good. He told me last year that in doing his business for more than 20 years, that he had never had someone make and sell t-shirts successfully until we came along. The problem is unless you are interested in getting all set up to make the t-shirts yourself, than you can't make any money as you are going to be printing a large amount of shirts to make the pricing more profitable. I found that I was sitting on a very large inventory that was not turning over.

I hope this helps you out and you are welcome to send me a PM and I can let you know more. There is so much to think about and I really wish I would have had someone I could talk to before we invested close to 50K into t-shirts and such.

 

[orangedog]

^^was it RVCA?

:rofl:

 

[Herfin' Harg]

Here lies the problem. Trademarking or copyrighting something is a few hundred dollars. The big problem is defending it. If someone decides they want to challenge your mark or release something similar, will you have the capital to defend your idea?

To put the kibosh on some misinformation here:

1. Defending your IPs here isn't actually a "big problem" given the fee shifting provisions under the Copyright Act and the Lanham Act.

2. Copyright protection is free - it attaches as soon as create whatever it is you've created. Copyright registration is $30-50 depending on what you're registering and how you file. You want to register so that you can take the action to Fed. Court to defend your creation if someone infringes it. Registration also provides for statutory damages, so you don't have to prove actual damages.

3. Trademarks are protected by common law, state law and federal law and there are different mechanisms operating at each step. Yes, it's more complicated (and expensive) than registering a copyright, and you will forfeit your application fee if you do it wrong. If you want to pay a professional (like me) to do it, you can expect 3-6 hours of work to vet your mark and submit your application. It will cost more to register a logo than it does to register a "text-only" mark because the database is more difficult to search.

4. If you're talking T-Shirts, you may be require TM, Copyright protection or both, depending on the sort of design you're considering, how you're gonna market your products, and what the IP "landscape" looks like after you've done some preliminary research.

Also, the best approach here, IMO, is to hire a professional not to file these things for you, but to teach you to do it yourself.

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." -accredited to Lao Tzu, I think.

 

[smokinghole]

Now onto T-shirts. DON'T DO IT. I started a t-shirt line several years ago. I found a screenprinter and we were going really good. He told me last year that in doing his business for more than 20 years, that he had never had someone make and sell t-shirts successfully until we came along. The problem is unless you are interested in getting all set up to make the t-shirts yourself, than you can't make any money as you are going to be printing a large amount of shirts to make the pricing more profitable. I found that I was sitting on a very large inventory that was not turning over.

I hope this helps you out and you are welcome to send me a PM and I can let you know more. There is so much to think about and I really wish I would have had someone I could talk to before we invested close to 50K into t-shirts and such.

I don't want to make the tshirts I just want to own a design for tshirts. Then I can sell it to tshirt makers online. Not even sure how that works

 

[kafreeman]

Now onto T-shirts. DON'T DO IT. I started a t-shirt line several years ago. I found a screenprinter and we were going really good. He told me last year that in doing his business for more than 20 years, that he had never had someone make and sell t-shirts successfully until we came along. The problem is unless you are interested in getting all set up to make the t-shirts yourself, than you can't make any money as you are going to be printing a large amount of shirts to make the pricing more profitable. I found that I was sitting on a very large inventory that was not turning over.

My wife wanted to start selling t-shirts she designs on her site. I picked up a press for it and make her shirts at night when if we have the inventory. Otherwise it gets ordered and made a day or two later then shipped.

Your point of inventory is very key. There is no way we would make any money by having someone else make it. Cost vs cost i calculated it would take about thirty shirts to recoup our very small investment when compared to quoted prices for this work.

I've dealt with parent registration (still ongoing), and I can see how much of a PITA it would be for trade marking and registration.

 

[twenty5]

I have no experience with copyrights, but I can give you an alternative idea.

Every time I think I come up with a great shirt idea, I check out cafepress.com. It is a site where you can upload your t-shirt designs, place them on the shirts, sweatshirts etc. that you would like to see them on and pick your profit. They then sell them for you and send you a check monthly or yearly with your profits.

I have read stories of people making 150k/year by selling an awesome design there. Just about every idea I have had, was done on the site already, sometimes better than I was thinking, sometimes not as well.

If I were you I would at least check the site out before continuing with what you think is an original idea only to find out that it has been done before.