[dragoneyes23]

Hi. I'm just a 15-year old thinking of ways to make money and i thought about designing t-shirts. I came up with 2 designs, both are just funny sayings, no drawings or anything. How do i go about selling them? I'm pretty sure i got to copyright them first, so how do i do that, and does it cost money, and where would i do that? Help would be very much appreciated.

 

[jdr8271]

They are already copyrighted, the second that you created them (in the USA), so long as they are your original ideas. You can file a copyright with the government if you want to, just to gaurantee your protection in case of a law suite. It costs like $50 per design if you do it yourself, or more if you use a lawyer.

 

[gedapear]

I would start our by figuring out how you are going to get the shirts printed. Next if you figure out how many you are going to make and if you have enough money to make them the next step is business formation. You have to decided on what type of business you want to have. You can do some research online about business formation at you local state web site and other site sould be helpfull. Then I would sit down and figure out who your shrits are going to appeal to, and devise a simple marketing plan for them. Once you do that everything should be good to go as far as going ahead with the project.

 

[Rodney]

You might try signing up for a free store at www.cafepress.com. You can upload your designs and sell them from there.

 

[dragoneyes23]

I haven't actually designed the shirts yet, I've just wrote the sayings. So if I were to designs the shirts, would it be ok to put that copyright thing on it down in the corner or something, or would i have to file a copyright with the government to do that?
Another thing, if I were to become a freelancer, and I were to show people my work, would they be able to steal it since i haven't copyrighted with the government or is that automatic copyright good enough?

 

[Rodney]

So if I were to designs the shirts, would it be ok to put that copyright thing on it down in the corner or something, or would i have to file a copyright with the government to do that?

You can use the circle c copyright mark without officially registering your work with the government.

Officially registering it with the government helps you prove you created the work first and helps you collect damages if you wanted to take someone to court.

I haven't actually designed the shirts yet, I've just wrote the sayings.

You generally can't copyright or trademark a "saying", although there are some exceptions (like when the saying is a part of brand...like "Just Do It"). You can read more on the copyright and trademark websites.

Another thing, if I were to become a freelancer, and I were to show people my work, would they be able to steal it since i haven't copyrighted with the government or is that automatic copyright good enough?

One way to think about it is that someone can always steal your work. You can't really stop someone from the actual act of stealing it. Sometimes it's unintentional (coincidence of coming up with the same design as someone else).

Think of copyrights and trademarks as "after the fact" protection.

Yes, registering them can help deter someone from taking it if they do the research to find out if the it's already been registered.

I'm not a lawyer, but personally I think the real benefit to an official trademark/copyright registration is what protection you have "after" you find someone has used your design.

That registration gives you official proof that you created the design first, came up with the brand first. This can help you get the person using your design to stop and puts the law on your side.

 

[dragoneyes23]

ok, thank-you