Carrieanna1172 Report post Posted March 12, 2015 This may be a repeated topic but My 17 year old son wants to start making key fobs with his school / football team logo He would need to sell them to his teammates etc just to cover cost Could he get into trouble for this? I know the local screen printing shops sell sweatshirts with the team logo / school logo? It's a small school with a. Rey proud football team but do we have to get permission from Them? And who would we contact or ask about this? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
veedub3 Report post Posted March 12, 2015 As a Screenprinter and Embroiderer myself, I can tel you that it all depends on the School District. Where I reside, many of the High Schools utilize spirit gear to offset their sports programs and you must get permission. Their are other High Schools in surrounding Districts that couldn't care less. I would error on the side of caution and speak with the Principal or call into the Superintendents office for clarification. Karina Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Thor Report post Posted March 12, 2015 (edited) Using someone's logo in general is considered copyright infringement if a written permission isn't existing. Verbal agreements are hard to prove. A school's logo merely is the intellectual copyright of the school district. The school usually owns the copyright and asks the district for approval if it's being changed. Asking for written permission with the principal should be sufficient. However, there's a mistake in the process as you would need a copyright release for use (printing it on the product) and selling. Those are two different things. The easiest would be to make the products and sell them to the school as a retailer. This way a copyright release wouldn't needed as it would be made upon request of the school. Edited March 12, 2015 by Thor Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Handstitched Report post Posted March 12, 2015 G'Day, No doubt you've had a read the post, titled " Copyright Infringement" ? Its quite informative. Its a bit of a grey area. But I agree with 'Veedub 3' . Err on the side of caution. Hope this helps HS Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tugadude Report post Posted March 12, 2015 Don't know if this is covered in other topics, but if I were the school representative, I would want some control over what types of merchandise is worthy of receiving the logo. In other words, key fobs OK, cigarette pouches not OK. Not picking on smokers, just one item that popped into my head. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Carrieanna1172 Report post Posted March 12, 2015 Very valid point Tugadude I have a call in to the principle to get her thoughts We will see? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chriscraft Report post Posted March 14, 2015 (edited) I used to have a small airbrush t-shirt business that started by making high school logos. I was 15 y/o and began making custom t-shirts of my school mascot for myself and friends. I lived in Texas and everyone knows that high school football is a big deal in Texas. I was approached by our varsity football coach to make a few t-shirts for himself and his family. After that, I was in and everyone wanted one. From this experience I found that going directly to the team coach was easier to get permission from the school. The coach would push for the school to grant permission in writing to reproduce their high school logos. When searching for more work from other schools, The principal way and school board way was always slow and a few times I ended up being told "NO" in the form of a letter weeks later. I resorted going to the FB team head coach and they would see the quality of my work and grant me permission. By the time I was out of high school, I had permission from all the local high schools. I even had my own custom mascot designs. I began using my same designs with different school names in my regional area. I even had a few screen printing t-shirt shops approach me for permission to reproduce my original designs. I even had some that would just mass produce my designs without ever asking me. This lead to me designing high school class t-shirts and year book cover artwork. Even branched out and began making logos for the youth football teams that didn't have any team logos. I have designed many school mascot logos and painted them on school warehouse trucks, school buses, car windows during district and state games.I have even made plenty of football game break though banners in my day. I would say make your sample key fob and have it approved by a coach as his fund raiser. Donate .50 cents for every one you sell to any school charity. This will always work, it did for me for many years. Good Luck. Chris Edited March 14, 2015 by chriscraft Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
