Wondering If i can sell star wars shirts online?

[polardude1983]

I had made a Stormtrooper Star Wars shirt in Inkscape and was wondering if would I be able to sell it or am i just out of luck? I know ppl sell and make stuff here? so if i can't sell that then whats the difference? I included the picture of my design.

 

[Fett 4 Real]

looks cool I designed a Boba one similar to this...dont know how hard it would be to have done though as far as printing.

 

[polardude1983]

I am working on a few others like the Leia one below. Lots of fun ideas

 

[mrsnaglium]

I had made a Stormtrooper Star Wars shirt in Inkscape and was wondering if would I be able to sell it or am i just out of luck? I know ppl sell and make stuff here? so if i can't sell that then whats the difference? I included the picture of my design.

DUDE!!! HOW MUCH!!! I WANT 2!!!!!

 

[dsonik1]

Be very careful how you distribute these. Minus proper licensing, Uncle George's legal team can be very nasty.

 

[Fett 4 Real]

this is true...need to not call it anything but a sweet design shirt

 

[polardude1983]

Be very careful how you distribute these. Minus proper licensing, Uncle George's legal team can be very nasty.

See thats the thing. Is I don't get the difference on how people can make and sell star wars stuff on ebay, or here. And how people can sell star wars shirts like these on this site. http://www.spreadshirt.com/star+wars

Whats the difference?

 

[Tankboy]

EVERYTHING not licensed by George is technically illegal. Copyright infringement. If you sell it, he CAN come down on you. But it doesn't happen much, unless you start producing these things like crazy, and you're making a ton of money. If it's just a little side thing, sell a dozen ot 2 shirts, you should be fine. It's always a fine line to walk.

 

[SerpentKing]

My take is, you gotta think like a drug dealer . . . get your product to the customer, advertise by word of mouth, stay off the radar.

 

[Hakaider]

Um...I really hate to bring this up...But does any of the Lucasfilm lawyers scan & read this forum?

 

[webchief]

Um...I really hate to bring this up...But does any of the Lucasfilm lawyers scan & read this forum?

There's no reason they couldn't. You don't need an account to read posts here.

I would strongly urge you to be cautious when discussing making unlicensed Star Wars merchandise and selling it.

 

[polardude1983]

So when also people sell stuff on here, they are also walking a thin line?

 

[SerpentKing]

Or . . . you could play it the OTHER way. I've thought about selling stuff openly, to get the legal's attention, while I put the word out that I WANT a licensing agreement but have no idea who to contact. Why fight the Man when you can play for the same team?
I'm not advising anyone to do that . . . just throwing an idea out there.

 

[berkal]

Providing the merchandise is original artwork and does not use any protected media such as trademarked or other copyrightable material you can sell what you like.

 

[webchief]

So when also people sell stuff on here, they are also walking a thin line?

Technically and if LFL wants to be difficult about things? Yes.

I think the difference with most shirt runs you'd typically see sold on forums such as this is that they're done at cost and not for a profit. I'm assuming the sales you're talking about are for profit which would be where you could run into legal troubles depending on how you handled yourself.

Again, I'm no legal expert, just giving my opinions and advice that I hope helps. PM Art directly if you're concerned, he might have better advice for you.

 

[polardude1983]

No it would be at cost. no profit

 

[berkal]

It's got nothing to do with profit or not for profit. It's about infringing someone elses intellectual property rights.

 

[jarodpenn]

My take is, you gotta think like a drug dealer . . . get your product to the customer, advertise by word of mouth, stay off the radar.

LOL... That's real experience talking!

 

[randomdave]

Providing the merchandise is original artwork and does not use any protected media such as trademarked or other copyrightable material you can sell what you like.

Hi,

Can you expand on this a bit please? I'm a graphic designer and want to make and sell a clothing item which will mimic a pattern / texture from a vehicle from the star wars movies... I also want to partially use the the name of the vehicle as the name of the unique clothing article to help promote and market it... while the pattern I am mimicking the artwork will be made from scratch (not just duplicating the texture from a photo of something like that) and will nesure there are differences.

I then want to raise money to produce the clothing article via crowd sourcing and if target amount is reached I'll swiftly put it into production and distribute. My concern is if it really takes off and gets traction it will likely draw attention from you know who...

I mean... there are 100's of dodgy starwars t-shirts out there right? (yoda with headphones, Cartoon / humour SW t-shirts etc). So technically if these ar eout there why shouldnt i do my idea?

This wouldn't be that, it would be more of a styly fashion item and if it works probably very sought after... just don't want to go through producing it and begin to make profit only to be stung hard for my efforts by accidentally crossing any copyright laws.

Any advice on this sort of thing would be useful.

thanks

Dave