[Rodney]

Is there any other way to either trademark it for dirt cheap or protect it until I can afford to do so

The only way to officially register a trademark is to apply through the US Trademark office and pay the application fee.

Even then, it's just an application fee and there's no guarantee that your trademark will be approved.

I'm not a lawyer, but you might be better off just going out and establishing your t-shirt line. Get some shirts made up, sell them online. Get some labels made to put in your t-shirts with your brand on it.

Trademarks aren't meant to protect "slogans" or "ideas", they are meant to protect a "brand name".

When my trademark application was first denied, they asked for proof that it was a "brand". Some of the things they asked for were clothing labels with my "brand name" in them. Something I wouldn't have if I wasn't already selling the brand (I actually didn't have the labels anyway, since I didn't start using them at that point).

My laymans advice is to start selling now, and get your trademarks in order later.

If you don't have the money to register a trademark, then you probably don't have the money to pay a lawyer to protect the trademark from someone stealing it.

Get out there and start selling t-shirts!

 

[Rodney]

I live in a small town and the slogan I want to use is a branch off of our town name. Okoboji----Okobooti. I think it will be very popular as someone else already has--"univeristy of okoboji" Even though there is no UofO here. It ballooned and locals tried to steal it. I'm real nervous about just putting it out there without it being protected. Where do I get a copyright from?

First you need to understand how copyrights and trademarks work (a copyright probably won't protect the word okobooti and unless you establish okobooti as a "brand", you'll have a hard time registering it as a trademark).

You can read more about trademarks at the US Trademark Office Website and more about Copyrights at the US Copyright office.

 

[Rodney]

a lamen way of doing this is write you ideas down on a paper, put that paper in an envelope with the designs and drawings and mail it to yourself... but dont open it... thats the "poor man" ways of protecting his ideas...

That method offers ZERO copyright protection.

There is no such thing as the poor man's copyright.

 

[Rodney]

why am i always online when everyone else is offline. whoever reads this match, can you please tell me the best times to enter this forum?

Hi kfairy, the great thing about a forum like this is that you don't HAVE to be online at the same time as everyone else to get the information you need.

Many topics about getting started selling t-shirts have already been discussed and archived. That means you would just need to search through the past threads or read old topics in the forum that you're interested in (for example, if you're interested in screen printing, you could read older threads in the screen printing forum).

If you have *specific* questions after you've read the older topics and searched for an answer, feel free to post your question in the appropriate subject forum and when our members see the question, they will respond. You can then return to the forum and read the answer to your question (or select "subscribe to topic" to be notified via email when someone responds to your question).