[writetanyaj]

This may be an odd post but I found a guy to partner with he has a full screenprinting operation will print to order and im happy with how everything will work. HOWEVER my one concern is how do I protect and preserve my claim to MY designs when I work with him\? I cannot affair to copyright them and I want to establish that he has no right to use them for any other purpose than to print them for my customers and should I go to another printer he cannot retain them for himself...

I was thinking some type of NDA but hoping other people on here could give advice on what they do or have done that protects them without filing a copyright for every single design...

 

[Ripcord]

Just write up a simple contract and both of you sign it... But I wouldn't worry too much. If he's a friend of yours and you're sending him work I doubt he'd rip you off just to make a few extra bucks.

He already has no legal right to use them. Artists work is automatically copyrighted.

 

[writetanyaj]

Just write up a simple contract and both of you sign it... But I wouldn't worry too much. If he's a friend of yours and you're sending him work I doubt he'd rip you off just to make a few extra bucks.

He already has no legal right to use them. Artists work is automatically copyrighted.

This is not a friend of mine or I wouldn't be worried About protecting my designs tbh because I don't know them personally I want to protect myself.

I know you can draw up a contract I was looking for more in depth advice than a contract from someone who has done so...as in what is is called an NDA or something else is it legally binding what should it state etc...

 

[NoXid]

Designs are a dime a dozen. Having a market for them is the hard part. While the likes of you and me struggle to sell shirts imprinted with our unique designs, this guy makes money printing the jobs that walk through his door. I'm sure he has no interest in struggling to sell T-shirts to individual end consumers one-by-one.

That is assuming your designs include actual art, as text only designs garner no protection unless one has a trademark on the actual word/phrase or it is part of an already copyrighted published work (publishing on a T-shirt does not grant copyright to text).

 

[Ripcord]

Designs are a dime a dozen. Having a market for them is the hard part. While the likes of you and me struggle to sell shirts imprinted with our unique designs, this guy makes money printing the jobs that walk through his door. I'm sure he has no interest in struggling to sell T-shirts to individual end consumers one-by-one.

This is the truth. Every now and then someone will ask me "How do I know you won't take my design if I show it to you?" And the answer is that I have absolutely zero interest in trying to make a living selling one shirt at a time. Like who am I gonna sell them to?

 

[writetanyaj]

This is the truth. Every now and then someone will ask me "How do I know you won't take my design if I show it to you?" And the answer is that I have absolutely zero interest in trying to make a living selling one shirt at a time. Like who am I gonna sell them to?

I appreciate what you're saying this particular printer has his own line. While I understand MOST people won't care or do anything with it im not doing it for MOST im trying to be prepared as there are some people who would steal someone else idea...so if I think of it now I don't have to wind up in a position where I wish I had thought about it.

 

[into the T]

since your designs are text, there is not much you can do

even if you do hire someone to add some art to your sayings,
only those artistic elements of your design are copyrighted (assuming they are original and not stolen)
these artistic elements are naturally copyrighted to the artist (or you with a legally binding contract)

your sayings will not be, unless you have very deep pockets and very deep friends
and if you had these two things you would not be here....

 

[NoXid]

I appreciate what you're saying this particular printer has his own line. While I understand MOST people won't care or do anything with it im not doing it for MOST im trying to be prepared as there are some people who would steal someone else idea...so if I think of it now I don't have to wind up in a position where I wish I had thought about it.

Someone with their own line and own sales channels, yeah, they would presumably have the means of selling them. So you are not crazy for thinking about the possibility

That said, if it is the idea you are concerned about (something that ANYONE can legally reproduce on a T-shirt regardless of what you do), then a short and simple non-compete or NDA would be the thing to have your printer agree to.

As to people "stealing" your ideas, it WILL happen if you actually put them out in the world. Don't let that fear keep you from putting them out there.