# Help with licensing images...



## Egnut (May 21, 2010)

Hi all,

I run a website that provides free graphics for our visitors (I won't mention the site address or the niche). We produce all the graphics ourselves and therefore own the copyrights. The site is prominent in that particular niche, and a company has contacted us wanting to use several of the characters from the site on various clothing items (t-shirts being one of them!).

I asked the company for their projections, which they provided. Now, I've been researching and investigating different options for licensing them, but I'm finding it a bit difficult to consolidate all the information! My feeling is that a simple license is probably the best way forward.

So what I'm asking the well informed users of this forum, is can you help me settle on a decent licensing model, one that's fair to both us and them? Do we go for a flat rate per print? Or a percentage of the wholesale price? Or a percentage of the profits? Also, the company is based overseas, and could not provide a reference of any designers or businesses they've had dealings with in my country. So I think that the norm in these situations is to incorporate an advanced payment of sorts.

They're waiting for an answer on the cost of licensing, but I'm a little confused as to what to go for, and what a fair price/model would be. Can someone provide a little guidance? i.e. what would you do in my position? I would really appreciate to hear from people who've had hands on experience with this - both t-shirt printers and graphic designers 

Not sure if this information will help form a better answer, but basically we're not protective over the artwork/characters; they're not *directly* linked to our brand. We're happy for them to use the artwork as they please really, and to give them exclusivity in their country. We produce the graphics and let people use them on their websites - this request came out of the blue, so anything we make out of it is "free money" so to speak. However, we naturally want to maximise how much we can make out of it, and don't want to undersell.

So how do you think I should best approach this without seeming amateurish in the field? If anyone could suggest figures it would be deeply appreciated. Sorry for the long post, just figured if I gave a clear picture I could hope for a clear and straightforward answer! 

Thanks for reading


----------



## kimura-mma (Jul 26, 2008)

Contact an attorney!

There are branding and licensing agencies that specialize in retail licensing agreements. Contact a few and get a free consult to get an understanding of what these agencies have to offer. Then pick the one you feel most comfortable with and let them negotiate the deal for you.

If this is a legit licensing opportunity for you, do it right. You are selling your intellectual property and you should have proper representation to make sure it gets done right.


----------



## Egnut (May 21, 2010)

Hi,

One thing to note is that the company is based in another country to ours. If they chose to steal our intellectual property, we wouldn't know about it for a start, and we wouldn't have the money to take them to court in their own country. So while I appreciate the very sound advice, I'm not sure hiring an attorney/agency would protect our IP. Unless we hired one from their country, which sadly isn't feasible for us.

As I explained before, we're not protective over the images - the characters are not the Mickey Mouse of our Disney if you know what I mean, we're happy for them to use the images however they please. The truth is we were very surprised that anyone would want to print our images on their t-shirts. It came totally out of the blue so *anything* we make out of it is a bonus. 

So let me ask a different question... the figures I'm thinking of are: 

1. 10% of the wholesale price of every item sold, plus 
2. An advance payment of 25% of their minimum projection (i.e. 10% of the average wholesale price of 6,500 items).

Would anyone be able to tell me if the figures I'm thinking of are ridiculous?


----------



## kimura-mma (Jul 26, 2008)

Hey James.

Foreign companies do business together all the time. There are international business laws that ensure legal and ethical business practices. So don't short yourself because you think you can't be protected when dealing with a foreign business.

In my post, I was not referring to *protecting* your IP. I was referring to *licensing* your IP. There are attorneys and branding/licensing agencies that specialize in this. They are experts at it and can negotiate a thorough and extensive licensing deal.

Licensing deals are typically pretty involved. Obviously, you don't have to go this route. But it's good to do you due diligence.


----------



## Marc Polish (Jul 7, 2009)

Our company is looking to either license our trademarks, or find a company that has good distribution to help develop and market a few of them.

Currently available to discuss

Future Jock
X-Jocks
Chai 5
Chai Maintenance

Two others we are looking to find a partner to bring these to market also

Mr. Positive
University of the Bible

Marc Polish
609 823 7661
[email protected]


----------



## shahidul (Sep 12, 2012)

We are new to licensing for T shirts ourselves though we have a pretty well articulated structure for licensing for newspapers, magazines, calendars, etc. The usual questions we ask are: how many are being printed? what territories they will be available in? 

In case of magazines, we would also ask for advertising rates and where in the magazine it would be printed. (More for Vogue than for college newspaper, more from full front page than for inner 1/2 page for instance). In this case I wonder if the retail price of the T shirt would be a relevant variable, but I am new here, so I'll need to find out.

Shahidul Alam/Drik


----------



## GordonM (May 21, 2012)

This is a very old thread, but since it was bumped, I thought I'd chime in, as one of the roles I've had is as licensor and licensee point-person for a recognizable brand (not apparel related).

I agree with the above that it's a good idea to consult an attorney. You can can draw up the license from bits and pieces you find, then have an attorney check it.

Asking for 10% seems way out of line, as it would be cheaper for them to just hire an artist. An exceptional artist is maybe $200 an hour, and say it takes a day to create the set of artwork. You're looking at just $1,600, far cheaper than what you'd be asking, and on top of that they'll own exclusive rights. They can, of course, find artists for less.

Art is art, but content is king. The original post does mention this party is interested in licensing characters, but you have to ask yourself if these characters are truly unique and/or recognizable within your niche so that your licensor will make more money with them than without. Could another artist -- without infringing on your copyrights -- produce something just as good?

So again, the question is how much do the characters contribute to THEIR bottom line, not yours. I can make more money printing Mickey Mouse on a t-shirt, because those are known and favored by a segment of the market. So I'd fork over more money if children's tees were my niche. But if I'm just looking to make shirts with a cute mouse, I can license those for maybe $100 a pop (non-exclusive), or have them custom drawn for me for a few hundred more. When licensing costs more than the benefit I receive from increased sales, there's no point in licensing.


----------

