t-shirt copyright info (urgent)

[ChrisFo]

I Live in Massachusettes and I run a website called www.Yanks-suck.com that sells "yankees suck" t-shirts and other anti-yankee designs.

I use the website Cafepress.com (which is run from San Leandro, CA) to handle all of the orders and production, and I get commishion for each shirt sale.



Before I joined Cafepress I was with another similar company called TogaWorld (which is located in Illinois) who had a lawyer confirm that all of my t-shirt designs were completly legal (for example they would not let me print anything that said "New York Yankees" on it, but just using the word "Yankees" or "Yanks" was ok.)

I switched over to Cafepress and I used all of the same shirt designs, so I know they were all legal.

Recently I received this email from a Cafepress representative:



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Dear (name edit),

In accordance with our Intellectual Property Rights Policy, (name edit) from the Coalition To Advance The Protection Of Sport Logos ( capsinfo.com) provided us with a notice in which it alleged that an image used in your shop infringes its intellectual property rights. Based on this notice, we removed your shop from our servers.

The use of a copyrighted name, image, logo such as that of MLB (Major League Baseball) can constitute both copyright and trademark infringement. If your designs are similar to any brand or copyright, you must either have permission from the copyright holder for the images or not use the material for profit. Even if a product is not marked up from its ?base price? (price offered by CafePress.com to storeowner), the sale is still legally considered a ?for profit? sale.

Intellectual property infringement is a serious matter. Penalties for copyright infringement can reach $150,000 per work infringed and penalties for trademark counterfeiting can reach $1,000,000 per trademark for each type of goods sold. An intellectual property rights owner may also have the right to recover the attorneys? fees that they incur in bringing an action against a person that infringes their intellectual property.

As you know, CafePress.com provides a service that enables independent shop owners to sell various types of merchandise, and we are not in a position to evaluate the merits of infringement claims made against such shop owners by third parties. In order to best protect itself and the legitimate owners of intellectual property rights, CafePress.com must take all allegations of infringement seriously which, as discussed above, includes removing your shop from our servers. Even though we have the right to do this, we realize that it may inconvenience you. We apologize for any such inconvenience, and hope that you understand our position.

Sincerely,





(name edit)

Intellectual Property Rights Agent Assistant

www.cafepress.com

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In responce to this email I said:

I must know immediatly which images were infringing on copyright properties.
Before I joined Cafepress I was with another clothing merchandise company
that had an attourney approve all of my images before they were printed,
I am not using any new images. I am almost certain that everything I was
selling was completly legal and before your terminate my stores I want to
have this verifed by a lawyer.

I would also like a copy of the email or I am going to contact my lawyer
and file a law suit for the buisness I am losing right now.

I then received this responce:

Thank you for your prompt response in regards to our notice. Please forward
all complaints and concerns to:


Coalition To Advance The Protection Of Sport Logos (capsinfo.com)
(personal info edit)


Kind Regards,

(name edit)
www.cafepress.com

I then called Ms. (edit) at that phone number and asked which images were infringing on copyright properties, and she refused to tell me.


Now my online t-shirt buisness (and only source of income) is shut down (and I never got any "cease and desist" letter or any kind of warning), and I am positive that none of the t-shirts were violating any copyright laws. Do I have a law suit with all of this, and if so What kind of legal action should I be taking and against whom?

Thank you for any help.

 

[ChrisFo]

No one?

 

[tbird]

No one?

You should call a lawyer specialized in Trademark problems - may it costs in the moment a bit of money - but in the end if will saves you also a lot of money.

Timo