Buying a name brand shirt and putting a design on it is it legal?

[David0141]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New York

Now i will be searching some threads on here to see if it is already answered but here is my dilemma.



I would like to purchase some sweatshirts from a name brand company lets call it Jike. I would like to purchase 10 of their sweatshirts. With these 10 sweatshirts from Jike i would like to put my design on them and distribute them to our sports team. The sweatshirts would stop there just being held by 10 or so people. In doing so these would not be for resale but as team sweatshirts. Would this be legal? we could be featured in newspapers and in online blogs wearing these shirts by any slight chance.

Just as clarification because i have been reading threads these are not for resale. These are for our personal enjoyment, because websites where you can make your own have bland sweatshirts. These are for a team, and will have a design made by us on the shirt. would this be legal at all? and we are not conserned about copyright for this design this is a sketch on of our team members drew and we would just print it on the sweatsirt. We are just concerned if taking a Jike sweatshirt and putting our design on it and wearing it is legal. thank you for your time

 

[quincy]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New York

Now i will be searching some threads on here to see if it is already answered but here is my dilemma.



I would like to purchase some sweatshirts from a name brand company lets call it Jike. I would like to purchase 10 of their sweatshirts. With these 10 sweatshirts from Jike i would like to put my design on them and distribute them to our sports team. The sweatshirts would stop there just being held by 10 or so people. In doing so these would not be for resale but as team sweatshirts. Would this be legal? we could be featured in newspapers and in online blogs wearing these shirts by any slight chance.

Just as clarification because i have been reading threads these are not for resale. These are for our personal enjoyment, because websites where you can make your own have bland sweatshirts. These are for a team, and will have a design made by us on the shirt. would this be legal at all? and we are not conserned about copyright for this design this is a sketch on of our team members drew and we would just print it on the sweatsirt. We are just concerned if taking a Jike sweatshirt and putting our design on it and wearing it is legal. thank you for your time

If you remove the trademark from the sweatshirts (the labels that identify the company) then, yes, you can legally purchase brand name sweatshirts and decorate them as you want. These should be sweatshirts that do not have any identifying trademark on the sweatshirt surface (for example, a "swoosh"), to avoid the risk of a lawsuit.

Trademark owners, on the whole, are very protective of their marks and will fight vigorously anyone who tries to use them without permission. And, whether their actions have merit or not is not as important as the fact that they have the money to make any fight a costly one. It is better to take precautions to avoid any lawsuit threat.

And do not promote your sweatshirts by using the trademarked company's name or logo.

 

[David0141]

ok

so hypothetically all i need to do is remove the "swoosh" in some way and its fine, no way to keep the "swoosh" without any repercussions?

 

[BigMouthWino]

so hypothetically all i need to do is remove the "swoosh" in some way and its fine, no way to keep the "swoosh" without any repercussions?

You could write to the company and ask permission to leave the "swoosh" on the shirts. I'm thinking that they're not really going to care.

 

[quincy]

so hypothetically all i need to do is remove the "swoosh" in some way and its fine, no way to keep the "swoosh" without any repercussions?

For personal use, you can purchase any trademarked product at all and pretty much do with it what you please, including reselling the product using the trademarked name to identify the product being sold. That is not a problem.

And, as a rule, the owner of a trademarked product is not going to go after anyone who is not marketing their altered goods to others. Trying to sell altered goods when the trademark appears on the goods, however, is legally problematic.

But, even if there is no intention to sell the altered goods to others, that does not eliminate the risk of a trademark owner noticing the altered goods pictured in newspapers or online blogs and sending a cease and desist notice and/or threatening a lawsuit, this whether a lawsuit has merit or not.

You are more apt to run across trademark holders like this when the trademark is a famous one, and the owner of the swoosh trademark is one of those trademark holders.

Trademark holders must police the unauthorized uses of their trademarks or risk losing all of their rights in the trademark. Some will vigorously pursue any potential infringers and others will not - but it is, again, up to the trademark holder to ensure the trademark is not being used improperly.

I cannot tell you, in other words, that there will be no repercussions. There could be. The best way to avoid the possibility of these repercussions is to remove the trademarks.

You can have an IP attorney in your area review your proposed use of the sweatshirts for your team, however, and see what risks this attorney thinks you have. Good luck.

 

[TheGeekess]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New York

Now i will be searching some threads on here to see if it is already answered but here is my dilemma.



I would like to purchase some sweatshirts from a name brand company lets call it Jike. I would like to purchase 10 of their sweatshirts. With these 10 sweatshirts from Jike i would like to put my design on them and distribute them to our sports team. The sweatshirts would stop there just being held by 10 or so people. In doing so these would not be for resale but as team sweatshirts. Would this be legal? we could be featured in newspapers and in online blogs wearing these shirts by any slight chance.

Just as clarification because i have been reading threads these are not for resale. These are for our personal enjoyment, because websites where you can make your own have bland sweatshirts. These are for a team, and will have a design made by us on the shirt. would this be legal at all? and we are not conserned about copyright for this design this is a sketch on of our team members drew and we would just print it on the sweatsirt. We are just concerned if taking a Jike sweatshirt and putting our design on it and wearing it is legal. thank you for your time

Why not some Russells or Hanes? Good heavens, don't pay extra for the Jike logo.

 

[quincy]

Why not some Russells or Hanes? Good heavens, don't pay extra for the Jike logo.

And there are some pretty good sweatshirts available at discount stores that have no famous labels to worry about.

It is just smart to avoid wrestling with the big companies that have big bank accounts and teams of lawyers if you can easily avoid it - which it appears you can.