# How to Trademark a Shirt Design



## kevincook (Dec 5, 2017)

How it's important and how can I do it easily?


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## NoXid (Apr 4, 2011)

Trademarks are not for designs. They are for your company's logo, brand name, company slogan, etc. And they only provide protection in the specific industry segment(s) that you apply for. So dozens of companies could TM the same brand name or slogan, as long as they were in different industry segments and were unlikely to result in confusion amongst consumers. The point of TMs is so someone can't come along and feed off of the success of your brand/company name recognition by fooling people into buying a confusingly similar (or falsely identical) brand by mistake.

That leaves copyrights. All works are now considered copyrighted upon publication, though in practical terms you still need to file a copyright before suing for $. However, previous court rulings have found that a T-shirt is not a legit means of publishing anything significant enough to warrant a copyright. But once published in a form accepted for copyright, art (not just words set in an off-the-shelf font) would be protected in any form, including on garments. Note, common and/or trivial phrases/words cannot be copyrighted except as part of a larger non-trivial whole.

So your wise-*** saying set in Comic Sans does not merit protection under the law.

There is much, much more that can be said (and read) on this topic, and it continues to evolve over time. Exercise your Google if you've got a few days to waste


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

You cannot trademark a shirt design. Only a brand or logo. I doubt you could copyright a design as well or if you can you will have virtually no way to enforce it. 

So, if your design is your brand, you can trademark it. It will cost a few grand using an attorney and can take many months to complete. You can do it yourself but that is a real PITA. You can use a service like Legal Zoom if you want to go in on the cheap but with a path to completion. 

Good Luck.


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## DrivingZiggy (Apr 24, 2017)

Ohhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmm! NoXid said, "***!!!"


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## NoXid (Apr 4, 2011)

DrivingZiggy said:


> Ohhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmm! NoXid said, "***!!!"


 I sometimes speak a bit less politely on Reddit and Twitter and the like. Forgot where I was typing


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## kanihoncho (Mar 14, 2008)

The thing that's sucks about trademarks is that you register your corporate ID for specific market segments. So if you want to protect your logo for t-shirts, coffee cups, hats, grocery bags, and greeting cards you will have to pay the 200+ they ask for each and every market segment. That can get expensive. 

You also don't need an attorney to register your trademark. You can search https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks-application-process/search-trademark-database. It still doesn't clear your logo. If you have the time and money pay for an attorney. I didn't.

Your artwork is automatically copyrighted when you create it. You can also register your copyright at https://www.copyright.gov. It used to be $35 per design, I don't know if that has changed. It could get very expensive for formal registration of each and every design.

I don't think tees with text sayings will have any real validity for copyright registration. But your original art is valid to copyright.


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## JohnDeco (Mar 2, 2020)

You cannot impose a copyright or trademark on t-shirt designs. It is for the company's logo, brand name, company slogan/title etc. And they only provide protection in the specific industry policies that they formulate. So, there are various companies that use the same brand name or slogan.


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## TABOB (Feb 13, 2018)

kanihoncho said:


> The thing that's sucks about trademarks is that you register your corporate ID for specific market segments. So if you want to protect your logo for t-shirts, coffee cups, hats, grocery bags, and greeting cards you will have to pay the 200+ they ask for each and every market segment. That can get expensive..


 In short: 

Trademark [™] is automatic.
Registered Trademark [®] needs registration.
Copyright:[©] is automatic, but can be registered as well.


What is the difference?
There is no searchable database for unregistered trademarks. Somebody may start using the same trademark a month later, and it will be difficult to prove who was first.


As for the multiple market segments issue, it is very easy to solve. Simply use a copyrightable trademark... A unique symbol or symbol+word combination will do it.


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## into the T (Aug 22, 2015)

NoXid said:


> So your wise-*** saying set in Comic Sans does not merit protection under the law.


thanks for the chuckle!


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## NoXid (Apr 4, 2011)

TABOB said:


> ...As for the multiple market segments issue, it is very easy to solve. Simply use a copyrightable trademark... A unique symbol or symbol+word combination will do it.


Excellent point.

People should note the many, many brand names that are in some way misspelled, or entirely made up nonsense words. The least defensible type of phrase is exactly the sort of thing people typically try for: regular words used in a purely descriptive and expected way. "Great T-Shirt Prints" would be bad. Something like "Carrot Printing" would be more defensible, as vegetables have nothing to do with printing, just as fruit has nothing to do with computers or the phone in your pocket.


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