This might interest a lot of you here

[paul I]

Macgregor T shirts

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Macgregor-Sailb ... cc&vxp=mtr

[kmclemore]

One wonders if they have MacGregor's permission to use their patented designs on the t-shirts they are selling and making money from.

Just sayin'.

[DanInCanton]

That's one of the downsides to going out of business. It may not be technically public domain, but there's probably no corporate lawyer left on payroll to argue the point.

[mastreb]

Hi Kevin,

I'm not a lawyer and so please don't take this as anything other than my informed opinion, but we do have a rule on this board that the less important an issue is, the more we must flog it.

As someone who has registered over a dozen copyrights, three patents, and one trademark (and litigated the trademark and won in a case where another business in the same industry was using my company's name), i do have a modicum of experience in the area of intellectual property.

This would actually be a copyright issue or a trademark issue, not a design patent issue.

Design patents are for things like the hull shape itself, and you'd have to make a duplicate hull without permission to violate that design patent. A picture of a design is not sufficient to violate a design patent.

Now, it's quite possible that MacGregor has trademarked the distinctive side view image of the 26M. It would qualify as not generic because of the distinctive dual bandit stripes and would probably issue, in which case nobody could reproduce that lineart image on anything without MacGregor's permission. It is unlikely however that MacGregor sought this protection for the lineart image however because they don't deal in pictures of boats, they deal in boats. This protection would last for as long as the boat is being produced--which, in this case, means that this trademark would be passing into the public domain as we speak.

It's telling that the T-shirt never says "MacGregor" anywhere on it: That term is certainly trademarked with respect to sailboats and using it without permission in any sailing context would be a trademark violation. This indicates that the producer knows exactly what MacGregor has trademarked and has not, and is sidestepping infringement. This also explains the odd "M" over "26" design: "26M" is probably also trademarked. You would prosecute the use of your actual marks in any infringing context because not to prosecute weakens the strength of the mark.

It's also possible that MacGregor registered a copyright on that line art image, in which case it would be protected under copyright law for some period of years depending on the type of art, usually related to the artists lifetime. Again, this would be unlikely because the business of selling pictures of boats is small potatoes compared to boats. If a competitor were ripping off MacGregor's design, he would go after them on a design patent basis, not a copyright basis.

In all of these cases, if the MacGregor yachts entity ceases to exist without asset selling these intellectual properties to another party, they pass into the public domain as well.

So it's my guess that the producer knows all of this, knows what copyrights and trademarks MacGregor has registered, and is sidestepping them all. I'm sure they've made a tiny little business out of doing this with dozens of makes.

[K9Kampers]

FWIW...
I sample viewed several of the brands the seller is offering, looking at the mfg.'s logo for variations. Stand alone logos seem to be exact, while others vary by placement of logo to name different from what mfg.'s use.

[Obelix]

We got these shirts a few years back at Kohls.

Obelix

[Russ]

we do have a rule on this board that the less important an issue is, the more we must flog it.

With the vast amount of counterfeit merchandise sold on eBay, I doubt this seller cares about copyrights or trademarks. At $14.99, they aren't making much money either. It's eBay and full of fly-by-night sellers.

As mentioned above, I doubt Roger wants to invest in attorney fees to protest it. To what end? Is there damage to his product that he doesn't sell anymore? I suppose Roger could ask for the profits gained from his name, which the seller will find a way to show none.
I believe many companies welcome the use of their band in T-Shirts and such as long as it shows them in a positive light. I would. Free publicity. If I were the owner of Tattoo yachts, I'd ask this guy to make shirts with that brand on them.

With that said, I like the shirt. Much nicer than the shirts we also bought from Kohls below. (BTW, it was determined those images were lifted from web sites that may own rights to them)

[NiceAft]

I bought two of those shirts, and personally, I like them better than what was shown in the original posting of this thread.

Ray