i work in a shop in a town built and based around a major university in the SEC, the owner of my shop is the mayor of the city. we print officially licensed products for the university and we also pay for the rights to print their name and trademark logo etc and sell them in our own shop, which is a sporting goods store which features alot of the university's mascot and name on it's merchandise. Though we do print this one shirt that resembles a popularized design you may have seen on hats made by the brand THE GAME, which you are undoubtedly familiar with. It is a "bar" design, if you don't what i'm talking about by saying bar design, its just one flat horizontal line or bar, a word(s) underneath that line, another line underneath that word, another word(s) underneath that line, and one more line. As this product is pretty official university gear and pretty well sold (well very well sold, frankly), and uses the exact color scheme of the universities color, i would think that we too pay for the right to print the name of the university, BUT we do not. and my owner is not a criminal, he is a responsible law abiding business man. WHAT i took keen notice of us doing, is printing a period after the name of the university on the top line of text in the design. a period where i might have thought a trademark or copywrite symbol to be, the first time i printed the design i tried to tape it off thinking it to be a monstrous pindot, my mortal enemy. But then i was quickly advised that this was party of the design, as if we did not have it there we would be committing copywrite infringement. Though barely noticeable, if you do take notice of it like me it sticks out like a sore thumb. so as my man hath said above, this savy business man may have toe'd the line on this one. Though this is the only product we do like that, he doesn't try to dodge around copyright issues much, or flirt around it, he's completely open and honest about it on this one, as if its his own possesion, as if the design belongs to him (even though its clearly the universitys name and colors)? who knows. POINT BEING, you can toe the line, and get away with these things once, twice, maybe thrice, but always be modest, he's not trying to flirt around with copyright infringement, but sometimes it's okay to help yourself help yourself a little bit? at least i think so, i'd do it. take caution though, don't take it from me. many members of this forum will highly HIGHLY frown upon this, i can't let them phase me though, and if i can't, hell i know you can't? you feel me? you feel me. it reminds me of what happened in New Orleans, hundreds of screenprinters were awarded with an early christmas present this year, making and selling shirts with the words "who dat?" on it, like hot cakes, must have been a screen printers dream down there this past year. anywho, that money didn't go unoticed, and the NFL quickly bought it up, the rights that is. and it is now illegal to do it, though many people still do down there i'm sure, and thinking it just. but that copywrights a fine line, and everybody has their own interpretation of ethics whats right and wrong, as long as you can sleep at night, and stay on the right side of the law its free game out there, and the best of luck TO YA!
