T-Shirt Forums banner

Designed a shirt design similar to Obey. Copyright Violation?

2580 Views 10 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  stphnwinslow
Hi, everybody!

I designed a t-shirt that has a similar style to Obey Propaganda with borders but entirely in my own design and has no signs or symbols related to them at all. The design is focused on my university mascot (a tiger - it's definitely not the identical design because I know that'll be an issue for copyright) with few symbols that are related to my university. I will not put the name of my university or any references related to them at all because of copyright issues.

My question is will this design violate the copyright of Obey Propaganda because the styles are similar? I've looked everywhere that this may indicate the copyright violation but so far, I've found nothing. This is where you could come in and be quite helpful.

I plan on selling limited edition of this shirt to friends only (up to forty shirts only).

Thanks for all that you do!
1 - 11 of 11 Posts
In the vast majority of cases if one has to ask if it is a copyright violation than it is. Second if you are using the school mascot in your design you have a second issue. Colleges are hard core about protecting their brand.
post an image of your design and an image of the design you are afraid of copying.

have to see the 2 to comment further.
I thought copyright violation was the core of the Obey line... a digitized image of Andre the Giant along with a line lifted from the movie "They Live"
I thought copyright violation was the core of the Obey line... a digitized image of Andre the Giant along with a line lifted from the movie "They Live"
how do you know they don't have licensing for printing those images and phrases?
Pretty sure it's common knowledge that Fairey has run into that problem a few times...
how do you know they don't have licensing for printing those images and phrases?
This is just like the occupy wallstreet group copywriting thier logo so they can capitalize on thier anit-capitalism movement. :D
I designed a t-shirt that has a similar style to Obey Propaganda with borders but entirely in my own design and has no signs or symbols related to them at all.
If you are only using a similar style and all of the creative elements of the design are your own original work, then you should be fine.

But as miktoxic said, we could give a better answer by seeing the two designs side by side.

The design is focused on my university mascot (a tiger - it's definitely not the identical design because I know that'll be an issue for copyright) with few symbols that are related to my university. I will not put the name of my university or any references related to them at all because of copyright issues.
This may be a bigger issue than copying the Obey design style.

Even though you are not using official school marks, they may still be able to take action for "confusing similarity."
I thought copyright violation was the core of the Obey line...
Pretty sure it's common knowledge that Fairey has run into that problem a few times...
Two wrongs don't make a right.

It's ironic, but just because someone commonly violates others copyright doesn't mean they won't aggressively protect their own intellectual property against infringement.

I'm not sure there's really an issue here with Obey copyright. But it's not a good idea to assume Fairey's work is ok to steal just because he has been sued for infringement.
what i see when looking at obey's tee line is a bunch of generic work that the majority of can be made up with clip art and simple graphics.

sure some of it teeters on things i've seen in the past. a lot of russian wwll propaganda posters, beer logos and the like but nothing terribly original. but if you read the 'about' section of the obey website you'll note that it's not just fairey but a collaboration of designers (supposedly.......).
If you use the Obey style you're most likely making something that looks like a Russian propaganda poster, which I'm fairly sure didn't originate with Shepard Fairey... if you start to work in the same underlying themes as obey, then you're treading the fine line.
1 - 11 of 11 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top