Licensed product re-sale

[Randy Walker]

If I purchase a licensed team product (pro or college) like a patch or pin ect, can I add that to my product and re-sell it without any additional permissions from the team? The only modification I will make to the licensed product is to drill and tap a hole for mounting.

Any thoughts welcome

Randy Walker

[Dan Hintz]

Very sticky area there. My personal feeling is once you've purchased an item, you're free to do with it as you please. Unfortunately, the law is not in agreement (look at software license agreements... though those are slowly changing for the better). Once you sell it as a product, if you include a team logo on it, it gets sticky fast. Even if you're licensed to use the logo or logo-bearing products, your particular license must spell out any modification you intend to make to the product/logo.

[Joe Pelonio]

That's correct, it's asking for trouble. Most entities will have their licensing rules on the website, and in order to sell their product in any form, altered or not requires that you pay them a lot of money, hundreds of thousands. Look at the NFL, at the link below as an example:


https://www.nfl.info/NFLConsProd/Wel...Prequalify.htm

[Martin Boekers]

Major pro sports teams as well as colleges can be real tough on that.

They like to have TOTAL control over marketing items, if you'll read through a licensing agreement you'll get a better understanding of their control over most aspects.

If you do a couple a year and it doesn't put them in bad light you may get by. Typically it starts with a cease and desist letter. If you continue after that it can get real nasty.

Say for example you bought a pin and attached it to a hat you make okay not too bad, but say you take that same pin and incase it in lucite with cow manure. Same pin that you bought and paid for but chances are good you would
hear from that organization a whole lot quicker and with whole lot nastier tone.

I avoid even engraving a logo here or there on a plaque as technically I shouldn't do that with out a license agreement. Would I get caught doing one here or there probably not.

If you never read an agreement you ought to you will be amazed!

I wanted to market MLB photos I shot, I got their licensing "packet"
The scope was incredible! It was to a point if I licensed a photo, and decided to offer it framed and unframed I needed a seperate license for each! If a player was involved I had to go through the player's union also!


Most of licensing goes through the governing body. Baseball, MLB Football, NFL etc and not the individual teams.

[Randy Walker]

WOW they realy don't want little guy's like me to make and sell thier products. With conditions like that I will never be able to make my products. Thanks Joe for the link and everyone for all of the feedback. I guess that Im back to the drawing board.


Randy Walker

[Dan Hintz]

WOW they realy don't want little guy's like me to make and sell thier products.

No, they want the big guys to do it... that way, they can more easily keep track of the product line.

[Frank Corker]

I doubt very much that they would agree to you doing that. I'd be more inclined to think that if they found out that they would come down on you like a ton of bricks.

[Mike Null]

My opinion is that you wouldn't likely have a problem as you purchased a legal item for your own use. You didn't copy it, nor recreate it, nor in any way attempt to deprive the owner nor the re-seller of their just due.

I know I have just opened the door to the naysayers but.....

[Dan Hintz]

Mike,

If you purchased a team pin and embedded it into a solid block of opaque plastic so you couldn't see the pin, that's probably okay (though if you advertised the specific team being used, they might go after you). The moment the item is visible, however, you fall under the rules of logo use. It's not just the pin as a physical item (I agree with you, I purchased it, they made their money, I should be able to use it however I wish). They would argue dilution of value with their logo...and win.

[Doug Griffith]

I agree that you are asking for trouble unless you pay licensing fees.

How about you modify your product to include the branded patch, pin or whatever you want to use so it does not need to be altered (ie. a hole in it). Then sell your item side-by-side with the branded item and let the consumer do the attachment (include some double-sided tape). Then your product stands on it's own and there should be no problem. You will also benefit by having less inventory of your product this way.

[Doug Griffith]

Here's another one. I used to manufacture hard shell skins for Apple laptops. Consumers requested that I cut an apple shaped hole in them to expose the lighted logo on the machine. Sounded doable. It was just a hole. The problem would have been when the skins were not on the computer, the hole would have been perceived as an Apple logo. I would have benefited from the "use" of their logo (as a hole) and Apple would not have been happy.

[Lee DeRaud]

How about you modify your product to include the branded patch, pin or whatever you want to use so it does not need to be altered (ie. a hole in it). Then sell your item side-by-side with the branded item and let the consumer do the attachment (include some double-sided tape). Then your product stands on it's own and there should be no problem. You will also benefit by having less inventory of your product this way.

Don't you need to be a licensed reseller of the item for that to work? You may have just moved the problem from one document full of fine print to another.

[Rodne Gold]

Not the right thing to do at all -- but this discussion brings this question to mind

What's easier..asking your SO for permission to have an affair or just having one and groveling after if you found out?

[Doug Griffith]

Don't you need to be a licensed reseller of the item for that to work? You may have just moved the problem from one document full of fine print to another.

From my understanding, the items would be purchased from a licensed manufacturer or distributor. Just like any retail store that sells branded T-shirts or hats. If it's not altered in any way and not a component of your product there shouldn't be any issues. Your product is essentially converted to a frame or display for the branded item.

[Mike Null]

Dan

They would argue dilution of value with their logo...and win.

Surely your point would apply to some of those who wear NASCAR shirts and Raiders shirts as well.