Hiii Guys …
i would like to start to my a small company of rock/metal etc band t-shirts but i am not sure i can use bands names without having agreement or permission with them … it might lead to some serious leagal stuff … am i right ?? or i should start printing …will anybody care dese issues in india and hw to take permissions frm the bands??? …would they give ?..
I would consult a lawyer in your country before I did anything. You need to have all of these questions answered before you move forward.
I would imagine most big-name bands have strong protections in place to protect their brand.
Big-name bands will certainly have their names trademarked so, yes, you will get into serious legal trouble if you proceed without their permission.
You will need to license the rights to use any trademarked names (and most likely pay a licensing fee) from the band or their legal representatives.
I think you’ll find that johntabita is completely correct in that, like any brand, band names are under trademark. It doesn’t matter if you’re from India, as their record companies will do everything in their power to protect their property (as they’re bound to do by law).
Additionally, you’re likely to find that customers will not want to buy band t-shirts that are not authentic. The entire idea behind buying them is that in buying a shirt you’re supporting the band financially as well as publicly.
Most popular bands will have their shirt designers already sorted out I’m afraid, so the best thing you can do is to either go to a record label with some example work and see if there is any potential design work you can do for them, or to support a more local band with their t-shirt designs. Outside of these avenues you’re out of luck I’m afraid.
Agree with all the above… you could be cheeky and innovative and just produce the T-Shirts to gain early revenue as the first course of action against you will be a cease and desist letter. If and when they send that letter you simply stop or risk further action. Use that revenue if any for investment into other areas.
They will only pursue legal action against once they have established they have lost earnings or you are harming them.
The cost of them pursuing you is enormous but they may feel they have to act or send a message.
This is still risky for you of course but in reality the chances of them coming after you is so slim because of the competition you face from established set-ups.
If you wish to produce T-shirt designs and sell them in large numbers you will need a very good site which is optimised to the hilt as the competition for T-Shirt printing is borderline ridiculous.
You will need designs which are unique and a way of printing them which is fast, accurate and won’t penalise financially for small orders.
You will also need quality T-Shirts as the very cheap ones are just that, very cheap and will look awful and in most cases last a wash or two before falling to pieces.
You can source a company in the Far East to produce higher quality T-shirts based upon a premium sample you send over. However you will need to know what you are looking for in terms of reliability as there are horror stories of people being ripped off.
If you can find friends or associates with connections in these fields you could spread the risk/work load.
[FONT=Verdana]Reviving a ten-month-old thread to which the OP never returned is pretty pointless.
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