COPYRIGHT AND IP 101

September 24, 2020

Copyright and Trademark Basics

Although we are knowledgeable about certain legal issues, we are not lawyers. If you have any additional questions, we recommend doing additional research on your specific concerns or consulting a lawyer for more information.

When you start designing for your online business, you’ll undoubtedly come across confusing legal issues. “Can I use this picture for inspiration?” “How about a quote found on the internet?”

Copyright and trademark infringement can lead to hefty fines along with other penalties. Before you design and start marketing a design, here are four things you should know about copyright and trademark guidelines as they relate to your designs.

1. The best practice is to create an original design.
   If you come up with a design that’s truly your own, and you haven’t based it off of anything else or made it look similar to an existing design, you can feel pretty comfortable that you’re not violating anyone’s trademark or copyright. It can be harder to come up with something that’s unique to you, especially with so many designs already on the market, but it’s still certainly possible to create a unique design to sell on your products. When you do that, you greatly lower your risk of running into trouble for a copyright or trademark violation.
2. Copyright and trademark are not the same things.
   In short, trademarks are for terms, symbols, and names. A copyright is used for original creative works, like movies, books, paintings, songs, web content, and choreography. If you’re putting a company’s name on a product without permission, you’re violating their trademark. Song lyrics are a good example of a copyright violation. For more information about copyright and trademark, visit the United States Copyright Office and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (https://www.uspto.gov/).
3. Know the rules when designing a product.
   You can use flags, national symbols, the likenesses of political figures, and coats of arms wherever you like. These aren’t protected by copyright or trademark, and you likely won’t face a lawsuit over putting them on a shirt. If there’s a famous picture of those things, though, don’t use the picture. While the images in the picture might be fair to use, the photograph itself is going to be protected. Also, don’t use famous, recognizable characters on your shirts. Those are all protected, and you’ll likely face legal action.There’s one exception, though. “Fair Use” allows for parodies, so if you’re making a parody design, you can generally get away with using famous characters that others can recognize. Just make sure it’s clear what you’re doing and avoid being too offensive. The parody opportunity isn’t just for people and characters. It also extends to things like logos. When creating a parody, it is important to note that trademark protection is in place under the law, to reduce the likelihood of confusion, mistake, or deception in the marketplace. A good parody should create the antithesis of confusion, as it should strongly mock the original work with enough differences to be clear that it is not related to the original work. If you’re planning on using a picture you found on the internet or a famous quote, those can be okay in some cases. Before you use them, be sure to learn where they came from and how to credit them properly.
4. Is it trademark or copyright infringement? Knowing the facts can protect you.
   That picture you found on the internet might make a great design, and the quote from your favorite actor may speak to you. Still, using these things in a design can get you into trouble if you don’t do it the right way. Famous quotes, for example, are generally all right to use, if you attribute them properly. Put the quoted person’s name on the design in much smaller print or add it to the product description on your website.For internet pictures, some sites offer photos free for commercial use, if the owner of the photo gets credited. Most sites don’t offer that though, so if you want to use those photos, make sure you track down the true owner and get written permission to use the photo for commercial purposes. That can protect you from legal problems and is the only safe way to use a photo in your design. For more information on attribution and different licenses, check out Creative Commons. You can also use our list of 85 sites that offer free stock images.Also consider the Right of Publicity, which states that people have the right to control the commercial use of their identity. If someone feels you’re using their identity commercially in a way they object to, you could be facing legal issues. With all the risks you take to use the work and likenesses of others, creating and using your own designs is the best option.

Copycat Policy

GearLaunch takes design theft and IP (intellectual property) claims seriously. These are the steps we take to educate GearLaunch Partners to ensure stolen designs are removed.

Design Intellectual Property Claims (IP Claims):
When a GearLaunch seller reports a copycat design, GearLaunch will use internal tools to determine whose campaign design was uploaded onto the GearLaunch platform first.

As a user-generated content platform, we take infringing content concerns seriously and appreciate you taking the time to report a suspected violation.

If a design appears to be in violation, we will lock the campaign and respond to your first report within 24 hours during regular business hours. On weekends and holidays, please allow up to 48 hours for a response. Locking a campaign ends the current launch and sends it into production. This is an admin-only action. Locked campaigns cannot be relaunched or edited by the seller.

If your campaign has been locked and therefore removed, we will notify you as soon as possible. We cannot guarantee any advanced notice.

How to Report an IP Claim:
To file a report, please email us at legal@gearlaunch.com. Please include the URL of your campaign and the reported campaign in the email.

Note: Only file a report for designs that appear to copy your own campaign designs; please do not file a report on behalf of another store.

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