How do companies like TFury and Shirtpunch legally sell shirt with copyrighted characters and slogan

luffy4luffy4
in Everything Else


How do companies like TFury and Shirtpunch legally sell shirt with copyrighted characters and slogans?




 




I have googled this and the answers vary from "parody" and they "havent gotten caught" to "Costs more to sue than its worth"



Figured one of you guys would know since obviously some of these characters include Sonic and mario among others


Comments

  • Bort License PlateBort License Plate
    The other day I saw a scratch ticket that was Pacman themed. On the back it said Pacman is a trademark of namco bandai and they are not affiliated with this product or something along those lines. Maybe they have a similar message and that gets around it?
  • rickrollcollectorrickrollcollector
    Just like how MegoBlocks got away with their product and Kre-O which I don't understand as well.
  • Loxx O)))Loxx O)))
    If it weren't for those types of guys, I would have none of my awesome Metroid shirts. But, I dunno. The real surprise is Disney products since they have no issue fucking you if you use their stuff. So, I'm guessing, parody would be one way around it? You said that, I know, and I have no real answer.
  • empireempire
    Says on their DMCA policy at the bottom of the page.



    Basically in the US its legal as satire/parody.as it's original artwork and not something official.
  • meta-markmeta-mark
    Like you said, it isn't worth their time to sue everybody. It's just like those kiosks you see in the mall selling tshirts, hats, phone cases, signs, or whatever with sports teams, video game, and movie characters. Those are (mostly) all rip offs too.



    I can't say I'm helping though, I'm sure my Foo Fighters tshirt isn't licensed!
  • teh lurvteh lurv
    With Teefury, I believe they would claim their mash-ups t-shirts fall under the definition of parody. Nintendo defends their IP pretty hard, and I don't recall t-shirts on teefury depict Mario/Zelda/etc in the cartoony art style Nintendo uses. Most of their t-shirts depict those characters in a completely different art style, like art nouveau Peach or Samus.



    Companies need to defend their trademarks, but I think they realize they can't stomp out fandom creations and would end up with a hurt fanbase because of it. So there is this grey area where people can make a profit off IP as long as is doesn't get too close to the real thing.
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