Copyright Aid

Hi Phil,
The Parody exception is due to become law on 1 October 2014, assuming all goes to plan in Parliament .
As for FIFA and their intellectual property 'land grab' I think this page from their website tells you all you need to know about their policy on intellectual property. And this pdf puts ...

HI Phil,
Although I am aware of this 'religion' I can't say I am familiar with their detailed doctrine. Given that ideas alone are not subject to copyright, I don't think you run any significent risks in parodying either the 'religion' itself or its symbols. By symbols I don't mean any literal ...

If the age of a religion is less than the copyright duration, what are the implications for making t-shirts that reference the religion?

Specifically, "The Flying Spaghetti Monster", which was originally created by a then-24-year-old physics graduate Bobby Henderson in a letter to the Kansas State ...

Blimey Phil,
Your follow-up questions are longer than the originals! You realise that this forces me to be equally long in replying.
We are now seriously departing into the world of trade mark law which rather goes against the aim of the site, so I think this must be the last of these digressions ...

...and finished. (I dipped into a few referenced cases in between).

Interesting that the defendants felt they had a case at all, there. It all seems a bit cagey.

Hi Phil,
The legitimate use of a trade mark (because you owned that trade mark for instance) on goods or services which originated from the source to which the trade mark applied (in this case a genuine Banksy artwork) would not infringe the trade mark per se because both were genuinely connected ...

Hi Phil,
Yes a trade mark can be revoked for non-use unless there are valid reasons for the non-use. But use either by the proprietor or by a licensee, would count as use. Clearly the trade mark 'Banksy' has been used in certain contexts, but I doubt if there has been much if any use over a 5 year ...

Incidentally, on the trademark side of things, doesn't Pest Control need to be actively trading using the trademark in any given class in order to retain protection on that class?

As far as I can tell, it's not possible to buy "official" Banksy clothing from Pest Control. Does that not make the ...

Thanks for that Andy! Very useful and informative!

As usual, the law is less straightforward than it initially appears.

Ah, one more question I meant to ask...

What's the situation with graffiti that has been left in "designated legal graffiti areas" by anonymous artists? Fair game for a third party t-shirt company due to the anonymity, or copyright-liable providing that the anonymous artist outs himself to the ...

Hi again, all!

I was just wondering if anyone could clarify a few things for me with regard to stencil graffiti / street art, anonymous artists, and selling t-shirts.

I did a search on here for "graffiti" and found two related threads, in which I came across the phrase/concept 'Non faciat malum ...

Sorry about the size of the images. ^^^

Hi Andy,

thanks for the reply.

the one on the right is their version, and ours is this one...

http://cdn.somethinggeeky.com/assets/images/products/amazonlarge/5231f4081b64c.jpg



Our other ones in the same range are...


http://cdn.somethinggeeky.com/assets/images/products/amazonlarge ...

Hi Phil,
I agree that three words would probably be de minimis , and if it's scientific 'fact', again it would not normally qualify for copyright, and finally on the words, is the other company actually the author of the words? Possibly not.
But if the warped version has any artistic element (which ...

Hey guys!

I need a bit of advice, if you don't mind!

We have received a cease-and-desist letter regarding a t-shirt design we do.

The design is a 3-word slogan relating to science, nothing to do with a TV show or movie or anything.

The three words are being warped in a funny way that relates ...