I have a great t-shirt idea that I have not seen anywhere. Should I copyright it or something?

Question

I have a great t-shirt idea and design that I have not seen anywhere. I want to put my design on a shirt and sell it through cafepress or something.

I'm just scared that a bigger company will take my idea, and I don't want that...........

How can I make my shirt and not have the slogan/design get stolen?

(yes, it's that awesome)

Answer 1

Let me say this first: YES GET IT COPYRIGHTED!!!!!

I would get the idea copyrighted as a first step. The next step I would take is talk to some companies to get a sponsor for this idea. Because it seems that you have a great plan on your hands, so without selling your idea away too much, just try to get a sponsor after the idea is copyrighted so you'll have money behind you to make your dream possible.

Good luck to you and best of wishes!!

Answer 2

Copyright your work at www.copyright.gov. That is the only way you can defend your copyright in court. That is not required to protect your work, but it has a lot of benefits.

Among these advantages are the following:

Registration establishes a public record of the copyright claim.
Before an infringement suit may be filed in court, registration is necessary for works of U.S. origin.
If made before or within 5 years of publication, registration will establish prima facie evidence in court of the validity of the copyright and of the facts stated in the certificate.
If registration is made within 3 months after publication of the work or prior to an infringement of the work, statutory damages and attorney's fees will be available to the copyright owner in court actions. Otherwise, only an award of actual damages and profits is available to the copyright owner.
Registration allows the owner of the copyright to record the registration with the U. S. Customs Service for protection against the importation of infringing copies. For additional information, go to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website at www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/import. Click on “Intellectual Property Rights.”
Registration may be made at any time within the life of the copyright. Unlike the law before 1978, when a work has been registered in unpublished form, it is not necessary to make another registration when the work becomes published, although the copyright owner may register the published edition, if desired.

This only protects your T-shirt design. Protecting the slogan is a lot more difficult.

You could register the slogan as a trademark.

The US Patent and Trademark Office (www.uspto.gov) handles all federally registered trademarks. You can search for the trademark you want, to see if someone else has registered it. If it is not registered, you can register online for $275-$375 depending on how you file.

However, I'm not sure this will fully protect you. Designs can be copywrited, but if it is a common phrase, you may not be able to protect it.

If it is really that awesome, spend some money to consult a lawyer. If you don't have the money, convince someone who does (parent, relative, rich friend) to back you.

Answer 3

You need to copyright the design. Original work is automatically copyrighted to you, but proving you did it first is hard. The poor man's method of proving when you created the design is to mail a certified copy of the design to yourself, then keep the unopened mail in a safe place. In case of a question about the date you came up with the design, you have a postmark as proof.

Answer 4

Patent it. You definetly don't want to just ignore that, then find out someone else thought of your idea a year later. That wouldn't be good!

Click here: http://www.uspto.gov/

Good luck, hope to see your t-shirt someday [with your name on it of course :]

Answer 5

You can copywrite it but it may not be worth tracking down infringers.
Make a few and start marketing them keeping track of your advertising and you can prove it was yours if stolen.

Answer 6

sure, start small, use a printer to print decals and everything, then start selling them on ebay, and craigslist. just dont take my ideas.

Answer 7

buy a patant...............

Answer 8

idk why r u asking me