Altering and reselling a product - legal?

[Adrh87]

A slightly different angle on these posts. What happens if I buy a genuine product second hand and in a process of refurbishing it need to remove the original brand logo. Can I put my own branding on the item to resell as long as I state that it is second hand. I’m thinking about a cricket bat that I own, I will need to sand it down which will involve removing stickers and re-oil it to give it a new lease of life. But I don’t really want to leave it completely blank so thought of making up my own logo to put into it. Would I face any legal issues as it may be seen as I am passing off someone else’s product as my own?

[AndyJ]

Hi Adrh,

I don't think you face any legal barriers to doing this. Neither trade mark law nor the commonlaw tort of passing off cover this type of occurence, as they are principally concerned with protecting a manufacturer or service provider against others trading on their name and reputation.

There is something known as reverse passing off which is similar to what you describe but differs in that the second party openly uses the product of the first manufacturer and so trades on the goodwill of the first manufacturer. However if the second party then substitutes an inferior third party product instead, this would be reverse passing off. For example, many people will know that the company Overfinch sell modified Land Rover vehicles, which are re-badged 'Overfinch'. Obviously this is done under licence. However if Overfinch started making their own complete vehicles using look alike body parts made in China instead of genuine Range Rovers parts, and continued to let the public think their product was based on a genuine modified Range Rover, that would be reverse passing off.

What you propose is quite different in that you would be removing the name of the manufacturer of the cricket bat altogether, rather than relying on it as a selling point, so this would not amount to reverse passing off.

[Paul987]

]Hi,
I sell used designer clothing.
I sometimes "customise" it by sewing on fabric, printing or otherwise decorating the garments.
I advertise them as genuine designer garments (for example Moschino, Paul Smith, Burberry etc) as they honestly are, but also mention that they have been customised.
I add designer logos and images to some of the garments but these are STRICTLY related to the garment being customised .... so, for example, I might add a Paul Smith logo to the back of a Paul Smith shirt or some "Burberry" text to a Burberry coat.
To be clear, ALL the items are GENUINE (although pre-owned) to start with and then they are augmented / customised by me, sometimes using additional "branding" elements, but only those elements that are of the same brand as the garment.
What's your opinion on this?
Am I breaking any laws?
I appreciate your time and thank you in advance.
Paul

[AndyJ]

Hi Paul,

A piece of clothing you can buy on the high street would rarely qualifies for copyright protection - in the UK at least - because it isn't seen as being a work of artistic craftsmanship which is the only category it might fall into since it isn't a work of literature, art, music or drama. The main protection which is suitable for clothing is something called design right, but that only protects against direct copying.

Trade mark law isn't really involved either because the goods are genuine Paul Smith or Burberry items to start with, so any modification is irrelevant. The only area of the law which might come into play is something called passing off. It is possible that a claim of passing off might stick if the claimant, say Burberry, was able to show that their brand reputation was being adversely affected by your alterations and the buying public were confused on that issue. However if you have made it clear to your customers that these are modified garments, and Burberry can't find anyone who has been confused, thern such a claim wouldn't succeed.