# New to the business and very confused



## pinkeeewhips (Aug 5, 2008)

OK here goes. I have been reading a lot on here and think I have totally confused myself...All the info is great but i am not sure what applies to me. I have about 150 word saying I want to put on shirts that I have not Seen anywhere else. Do I need to look each one up to see if a patent exsists...do I need to patent all of them or just trademark or copywrite....Ok next I am trying to get a merchant account but have some credit issues( I used to own a mortgage business) any help here or am out of luck...also looking for a company that will let me send in orders as they come in and print and ship them to the customer with my information...I have a great product I know as the guy that it based on will be in Playboy next month and people are begging for the shirts that he wears now that he had a friend make, but unfortunately can no longer be found to do more...New Orleans area so most people he knew have moved away or out of business...As far as the website I bought a site from sitelogic as well as have shop site thats built in and wonder if I made a bad choice...any suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated...oh one more thing the shirts have adult text which is making things a little more difficult to find a fulfillment company to pint...no pics all is just text sayings....Thanks for looking and if you


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> Do I need to look each one up to see if a patent exsists


The first step would be to research the terminology. Using the wrong terminology in your searches will make things more confusing than they need to be.

Patents are for inventions (like the light bulb) and generally don't apply to t-shirts or t-shirt designs.

Trademarks are for brands (sometimes short phrases that are branded)

Copyrights are for designs (not t-shirt slogans).


So, you would probably want to see if a _trademark_ has been registered for each of your slogans (look on the left hand side of this page under "Resources"). You could also search google to see if they are already in use.



> do I need to patent all of them or just trademark or copywrite


It's also copyright, not copywrite. 

That may have been hindering your searches if you're looking for copywrite (which is like the writing of advertising copy text on websites) and not copyright (which is the protection of intellectual property)

Copyright's generally don't apply to t-shirt slogans. 

It's very hard to get a trademark on a t-shirt slogan. Unless you can prove your slogan is also a brand.



> Ok next I am trying to get a merchant account but have some credit issues( I used to own a mortgage business) any help here or am out of luck


Try applying for a merchant account in a few places and see if you are out of luck. They will be the ones that can look at your specific credit score and see if they can work out something for you.



> also looking for a company that will let me send in orders as they come in and print and ship them to the customer with my information


You would probably want to look for someone with a DTG printer would would be able to print on demand for you.

You could also just create graphic files for all of your slogans and upload them to a place like CafePress, which will create an online store for you and print them on demand as the orders come in.



> have a great product I know as the guy that it based on will be in Playboy next month and people are begging for the shirts that he wears now that he had a friend make, but unfortunately can no longer be found to do more


It's possible those t-shirts are protected if they have already been made for someone. Just because the person can't be found, doesn't mean they still down own rights to the t-shirt designs.



> As far as the website I bought a site from sitelogic as well as have shop site thats built in and wonder if I made a bad choice...any suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated


To many variables there and the question is much too general to offer you any good advice. You can find all kinds of advice on building websites in our ecommerce section of the forum:

Ecommerce Site Design - T-Shirt Forums

This is a good start: http://www.t-shirtforums.com/ecommerce-site-design/t1849.html



> oh one more thing the shirts have adult text which is making things a little more difficult to find a fulfillment company to pint...no pics all is just text sayings


Which fulfillment companies have you tried? I don't know of any that really care about "adult" text.


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