# New here, is this legal?



## lilshortie4sho (Aug 29, 2007)

Hi, I'm new here and I wanted to print shirts with sayings, one liners, or just some funny stuff. However, I wanted to make these shirts under my t-shirt line. If I put a phrase that's already on another shirt (just a common phrase) and put it on my shirts, with my tags, woul that be a legal problem? All can you put anything on a shirt? As far as cursing and stuff. Thanks


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> If I put a phrase *that's already on another shirt* (just a common phrase) and put it on my shirts, with my tags, woul that be a legal problem


It's possible it could be illegal if the phrase is trademarked.

I'm not sure why you'd want to put the same phrase that's on other shirts on your line. I think it would be better to do something completely original 

If you really need legal advice though, you should probably talk to a lawyer.

If you search the forums here for information about copyright and trademarks, you'll find lots more info.



> All can you put anything on a shirt? As far as cursing and stuff.


Sure, you can put cursing on a t-shirt. It's been done before.

:welcome:


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## AustinJeff (May 12, 2007)

lilshortie4sho said:


> All can you put anything on a shirt? As far as cursing and stuff. Thanks


Depends on where you are located. In the U.S., obscene speech is not protected speech, and obscenity is defined by the community. Could be the community where a shirt is worn, where it is sold, where it is bought, or where it is produced. It is theoretically possible that you could produce a shirt that would be ruled obscene. It has never happened, as far as I can tell, and I have done some fairly extensive research.

I have seen some shirts that related to (though did not depict) unusual sex acts that are illegal in some places. I would bet that those shirts could be found obscene in some jurisdictions, but the fact is that enforcement officials almost always have FAR bigger problems to deal with.

In general, curse words are legal. There's a famous Supreme Court case called Cohen V. California involving a jacket (though sometimes identified as a T-shirt) that said "F*** the Draft." Guy was arrested for wearing it in a courthouse, but the Supreme Court found that the arrest violated the Constitution. There's a fair bit of info on Wikipedia under "Illegal T-shirts." Or Google Cohen V California.

Probably more info than you needed or wanted, but I've been spending a lot of time researching it and just had to share.

The more important issues, as Rodney pointed out, are to not violate trademarks, and to consider why in the world you would want to produce the same shirts that others are already producing.


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## lilshortie4sho (Aug 29, 2007)

Thanks I'm going to look it up. However, it would be sold online, so all over. I had a few request for some phrases but I had seen them on other shirts in flea markets. but if i can make money off a phrase money is money


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