ImagesMagUK_June_2021

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT www.images-magazine.com 24 images JUNE 2021 What are the rules around using other people’s images and lyrics on garments? I ntellectual property (IP) laws protect the ways in which an idea is put into practice. Anything that is applied to a garment as an embellishment such as a drawing, logo, lyric, photo or picture will be protected by various IP rights. Those rights will be owned by the original creator of the embellishment, unless they have sold the rights to another person. If an employee creates something such as a drawing, then under the rules of employment any IP rights in the drawing are automatically owned by their employer. When deciding if you can use particular lyrics, photos or pictures on a garment, you need to find out who owns the IP and ensure you have a licence from the rights owner to apply it to clothing and sell that clothing for a profit. The embellishment might be protected not only by copyright, which protects artistic works from being copied, but also by registered trademark protection, which protects a brand, logo or ‘badge of origin’. A rights owner can get a trademark for any sign including a drawing, logo or phrase that serves to identify the origin of the product in the minds of the public. This is how famous fictional characters such as Harry Potter and Mickey Mouse are protected, since trademark protection is potentially forever – they simply have to be renewed every 10 years, whereas copyright protection runs out after a set period of time. There are some limited instances where you do not need a licence including if the lyric, photo or picture is so old it has fallen out of the period of copyright protection. Copyright protects a work for 70 years from the date of death of the author, and this is why artistic works such as quotes from Shakespeare can be reproduced without permission. Another important consideration is where the garment will be sold. Lyrics can be protected by copyright and could also be registered trademarks. This is particularly the case in other jurisdictions like the US. For example, the lyric ‘This sick beat’ from the Taylor Swift song Shake It Off is protected in the US by a trademark registration, but not in the UK where the registration rules are different. It’s a good idea to check the rules in the country you are selling the garments. There are also occasions where you may want to follow a trend and be inspired by the zeitgeist and reference a popular TV show or song. If the images you want to use are from the show directly, such as a screenshot, then they can’t be used without permission. If it’s fan art that merely pays tribute to the show and you have permission to use it, then this is fine as long as no registered trademarks are included. We have seen Game of Thrones fan art T-shirts that show an artistic drawing of one of the central characters, Daenerys Targaryen, which is fine as long as it does not include the name of the character: HBO has a registered trademark for Daenerys Targaryen for items including clothing, meaning the company can stop anyone else using that specific name on clothing. You need to take particular care using photographs of public figures. A well-known IP case concerned the use of pop star Rihanna’s photograph on a T-shirt sold by Topshop. Topshop had a licence for use of the photo from the photographer who took a photo of Rihanna at a shoot for one of Rihanna’s music videos, but it did not have a licence from Rihanna. The courts held that because of her fame and widespread reputation, Topshop did not have the right to use Rihanna’s image without her knowledge or agreement. Rihanna had signed an exclusive deal with River Island for use of her image on clothing and so, in using her image on a T-shirt, Topshop was held to have confused the public into thinking Rihanna was in some way connected with Topshop, which she wasn’t. The courts held that in doing this, Topshop had infringed her commercial rights and committed the intellectual property offence of ‘passing-off’. The retailer was made to destroy all the offending T-shirts it had left in stock and pay its profits for the sale of the T-shirt to their rightful owner, Rihanna. For more advice on this topic from Jowanna Conboye, including the need for an IP clause in your customer contracts, go to imagesmag.uk/ Intellectual-Property. Expert advice on the business of running a garment decoration company Q&A Jowanna Conboye is intellectual property and technology partner at Spencer West, a leading full service international law firm advising businesses and individuals across the UK and globally. www.spencer-west.com