Legal Copyright question !!!

[stimmers]

When you go to see say Man Utd play footie, there are always guys selling Man Utd Scarves and T-Shirts, which are obviously not official merchandise, as that would only be sold in the club shops. How come the clubs allow these guys to sell their products?

How far are you able to use/copy the Man Utd name, badge ,players name etc when producing your own, non official clothing ?

[JustinP1]

I very much doubt that they let the guys sell merchandise which is not official.

The question is whether the merchandise infringes a trade mark or copyright.

Of course, in effect there is a grey area - as much as trade mark law is. In a nutshell, if you sell a red shirt then this of course is fine. If you are using the Man Utd crest then this would infringe the owners of that crest. Anything in between that is the grey area.

[stimmers]

JustinP1 said:

I very much doubt that they let the guys sell merchandise which is not official.

The question is whether the merchandise infringes a trade mark or copyright.

Of course, in effect there is a grey area - as much as trade mark law is. In a nutshell, if you sell a red shirt then this of course is fine. If you are using the Man Utd crest then this would infringe the owners of that crest. Anything in between that is the grey area.

Thanks for that.

So, making a red t-shirt with Manchester Utd on the back to sell might not infringe the copyright or trade mark ?

[JustinP1]

They have the registered trade marks of:

Man United
Man Utd
MUFC
Manchester United
Theatre of Dreams
Pride of the North
Glory Glory Man United
United Challenge

and
Fred the Red.

If you produced an item with these words on they may also be seen as counterfeit goods, which means you would get royally screwed.

[stimmers]

JustinP1 said:

They have the registered trade marks of:

Man United
Man Utd
MUFC
Manchester United
Theatre of Dreams
Pride of the North
Glory Glory Man United
United Challenge

and
Fred the Red.

If you produced an item with these words on they may also be seen as counterfeit goods, which means you would get royally screwed.

Thanks. Thats kinda what i thought, but was hoping their was some loop hole where the team name could be used on something. It was a pretty good business idea, but the copyright stuff makes it a non starter

[JustinP1]

stimmers said:

JustinP1 said:

They have the registered trade marks of:

Man United
Man Utd
MUFC
Manchester United
Theatre of Dreams
Pride of the North
Glory Glory Man United
United Challenge

and
Fred the Red.

If you produced an item with these words on they may also be seen as counterfeit goods, which means you would get royally screwed.

Thanks. Thats kinda what i thought, but was hoping their was some loop hole where the team name could be used on something. It was a pretty good business idea, but the copyright stuff makes it a non starter

I agree, its a great business idea - I think Man Utd thought of it first though a while pack and as they are making millions a year from it worldwide, I guess they want to protect it!

There are ways around it. Man Utd are a bad example and are difficult because of the name. Liverpool for example is also the name of a city, and you cant trademark a red shirt. Therefore if you have a red shirt with Liverpool written on to only you are fine.

[stimmers]

JustinP1 said:

stimmers said:

JustinP1 said:

They have the registered trade marks of:

Man United
Man Utd
MUFC
Manchester United
Theatre of Dreams
Pride of the North
Glory Glory Man United
United Challenge

and
Fred the Red.

If you produced an item with these words on they may also be seen as counterfeit goods, which means you would get royally screwed.

Thanks. Thats kinda what i thought, but was hoping their was some loop hole where the team name could be used on something. It was a pretty good business idea, but the copyright stuff makes it a non starter

I agree, its a great business idea - I think Man Utd thought of it first though a while pack and as they are making millions a year from it worldwide, I guess they want to protect it!

There are ways around it. Man Utd are a bad example and are difficult because of the name. Liverpool for example is also the name of a city, and you cant trademark a red shirt. Therefore if you have a red shirt with Liverpool written on to only you are fine.

It was one particular, specialist item of clothing that, amazingly, most top sports clubs don't really do, which i can get manufac for little money. but the branding is key to indentify it to my target market.

So you could do it if you left out the United, Hotspur, Wanderers etc part of it, because then you just using the name of a place.

How does Manchester CITY and Leicester CITY work ???? Same as United ?

Still probably a non starter without the full branding !