DSF

Hi,
I have seen this post and it has given me a smile, I sell these products that you are talking about and have just has a lot of fun with Trading standards over all this. I managed to sort it all out and I am fine to sell the products with the images on But one thing I did find out. If I add the name of the person then this is in breach of intellectual property rights and is a no no.

DaVillen;75747 wrote:Hey Guys,

I noticed that on eBay/Amazon there are lots of sellers who are selling Sublimated Photo's on Iphones of Celebrities and Pop singers like Justin Bieber. Is this even legal? I notice these sellers have been around a while and some have sold hundreds of these sublimated items. Anyone know the law on this?

Thanks Pau & Socialgiraffe for clearing it up...

Paul;75800 wrote:they sell digital file
If you sell photograph with JB to newspaper. newspaper will publish it. with some news. "Justin Bibber farted"

You should rephrase that to - Justin Bieber's a fart

You should rephrase that to - Justin Bieber's a fart

If I add the name of the person then this is in breach of intellectual property rights and is a no no.

That's very interesting parada and the first I have heard of such a thing. If I get chance I am going to ask one of the official merchandisers about that comment as I am not convinced trading standards are correct about that. From my understanding if you add "UNOFFICIAL MERCHANDISE" to the description then there is no confusion and property rights are not breached.

I thought you couldn't copyright a name?

There was a recent court case Rhianna V Top Shop concerning just this - "setting aside privacy or copyright issues, celebrities do not have a general right to control the reproduction of their image"

http://www.out-law.com/en/articles/2013 ... ys-expert/

You can register a name as a trademark, and if this has been done - ie, If "Justin Beiber" is a registered trademark (or even just a trademark, or seen to be a "brand" rather than just a name - "Justin Beiber" may not even be his real name, and therefore more seen as a trademark/brand) then if you put "Justin Beiber" on a mug (or other merch) then you could be in problems if the sale/product title implies it is official, ie "Justin Beiber mug" instead of "mug with photo of Justin Beiber on it"