# What is legal to sell on ebay?



## earlhines (Oct 1, 2013)

So I was always under the impression you can just print Nike, Coke, Star Wars logos, etc on t-shirts and sell them on ebay. However when I search ebay I find them all over the place being sold as new products and in bulk amounts from screen printers just whipping them out. These are not licensed sellers from the trademarked companies, so what gives, are they just selling this stuff illegally? How come they're not being shut down by ebay? Just curious, thanks.


----------



## Jarod (Aug 16, 2013)

Yes, they are selling them illegally 99% of the time. You ask why does eBay not shut them down, and your answer is because eBay is making about 15% off of each sale, so just more money for them. Hope that helps


----------



## Blue92 (Oct 8, 2010)

Jarod said:


> Yes, they are selling them illegally 99% of the time. You ask why does eBay not shut them down, and your answer is because eBay is making about 15% off of each sale, so just more money for them. Hope that helps


Yep. I'm sure buried somewhere in the eBay agreement with sellers is a CYA on their side that leaves the seller hanging out to dry if Nike or Coke, etc were to push the issue.


----------



## srinjayray (Oct 25, 2013)

Even though this kind of question must have already be asked here many a times, I'm still putting it once again as I couldn't find the exact answer I was looking for. If I use an image to draw an outline of a celebrity, would it be considered as my own artwork, would I be able to sell it without any fuss? Would I be able to label it on my website as with the name of the celebrity? I'm sharing a similar artwork which I googled

http://speckyboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/vector_7.jpg


----------



## kimura-mma (Jul 26, 2008)

srinjayray said:


> If I use an image to draw an outline of a celebrity, would it be considered as my own artwork


Technically, you could consider it your own artwork since you drew it. But if you base it on an existing image, the copyright owner of the image can claim infringement against you.



srinjayray said:


> would I be able to sell it without any fuss? Would I be able to label it on my website as with the name of the celebrity?


If you print the artwork on a shirt, it opens up additional legal issues. You would still have the risk of copyright infringement as mentioned above. But you would also have the issue of Right of Publicity. You cannot use a person's name or likeness (dead or alive) on merchandise without their permission. This includes using their name to label the product on your website.

To legally use their name and likeness, you would need to get permission from the person or their estate. To use the image, you need to get permission from the copyright owner or pay for a commercial license to use the image.


----------



## srinjayray (Oct 25, 2013)

Thanks a ton for the reply, clears all the confusion.


----------

