Cool Car Shirts - Are The Car Images Trademarked?

I see so many cool shirts, hats and hot rod merchandise of all types and have always wondered if the obviously identifiable cars are trademarked images. Such as, a shirt with a 1955 Chevy on it but no lettering saying Chevy or anything GM related? Does the maker of the shirt have to be licensed by GM, pay GM a royalty? If the same shirt also said 1955 Chevy on it what applies here?

Then I see alot of shirts with car images on them that resemble certain models but in a customized / modified look so what applies here?

I figured with the superwide range of people here on the HAMB this was the place to get a pretty straight answer.

 

we did a copyright/trademark search before we did our car show logo, mainly to make sure that when we copyrighted the logo it would go smoothly. i don't think you can copyright or trademark a general image such as a production car. maybe a custom car image would be different. good brain scratcher for the legal department...you know who you are.

 

Yes they do, GM and Ford people made a sweep through Pomona Swap Meet a couple years ago and shut down the merchandise sales of quite a few sellers.
Some of these were from sellers who used vintage screens and should have been OK .

 

Would the Pomona thing be because they were just Ford logos for example? I mean, can they really shut you down for your own rendition of a T bucket?

 

Cars don't need a release, logo's like Ford etc. are whole different story.

 

Well now I wonder what the folks had to stop selling.

 

Yes it was the Emblem or logo on a shirt , even the word "Chevy" would have qualified to be confiscated. For example , a Rod and cartoon drawing of a 55 Chevy that actually said Chevy.
Just the car was fine. Could not use any trademarked logo,image or design.
"See the USA in a Chevrolet" is a phrase that belongs to GM.
They do not often enforce these rights, just seems like whenever the random mood strikes every decade or so.

 

Wow...I wonder what would happen if it were a photo of Chevy Chase with the word CHEVY over it.

 

This is a very touchy subject .T-shirts Hats even Pins .The copyright police are
everywhere .No wonder the Auto industry is in the shape its in !

 

No worries for Chevy Chase , Proper names are exempt for the owner /person whose name it is.
Aahhh, the crazy loopholes!
Of course Mr. Chase cannot go up and say he owns GM or the posh neighborhood in Maryland either...go figure.

 

I was under the impression that we all own GM.

 

Emblems or logos can be "trademarked" or 'copyrighted". It is very easy to check the US Trademark Office on-line and see what images are protected.
Tom

 

Zero sales, that's what.

 

That was Pomona. What about Bugtussle, or Mayberry?

 

I've attended MAJOR automotive events in Hot Coffee, Mississippi and Two Egg, Florida.
Never a problem!

 

Zero sales?! There's just gotta be like 3 1/2 people worldwide just dying for a Chevy Chase shirt! That brings another point, what about font? Like if Chase looked like how the bank does it? I know that is part of the trademarked design, but can a font be copyrighted (or copywritten).

 

The copyright issue is pretty straight forward, but does have some gray areas. Basically anything that comes out of someone's brain into a tangible format is automotically copyrighted. The person who created the work is the copyright holder, no registration is needed.

If the person works for someone and the work was accomplished under employment, the copyright holder is the employer. If you hire someone to create something like a logo or a t shirt design, the originator holds the copyright unless specifically conveyed to someone else, such as the person that hired them to do the work. Simply paying for the design may not transfer the copyright, the receipt for payment should indicate transfer of copyright to be safe.

Copyrights survive the holder to his/her heirs, and can be further protected with renewals.

The image of the '55 Chev taken by an individual outside GM could use the image personally, but not for profit of any kind financial or otherwise. Technically GM could challenge the seller of a '55 Chev image.

Trademarks are for things like logos and emblems. Although a copyright does exist with the originator, the use of the logo in trade can be protected by registering a trademark, federal form with fee attached. Trademarks need to be renewed every 5 years.

Large companies with the resources to protect their property do so, like Ford and GM especially. They may shut a vendor or ten down, mostly to send a message to other vendors. Smaller companies, when contacted are sometimes agreeable to the use of their property.

 

Thanks for the input guys. I knew I could get some good opinions here.

 

We do now, don't we?

 

Good thread.

 

Yeah, just like Elected Officials Work For Us.