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Do these t-shirt guys think they are above the law? I'm surprised they have behaved so unprofessionally.
http://m.bizjournals.com/columbus/#/articles/view/page_9013772
Columbus Underground Messageboard » General Columbus Discussion
Skreened sued by Ohio State for violating trademark laws
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rightofleft
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Posted 9 months ago # -
Mister Shifter
Lewis Center
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rightofleft said:
Do these t-shirt guys think they are above the law? I'm surprised they have behaved so unprofessionally.http://m.bizjournals.com/columbus/#/articles/view/page_9013772
On a scale of 1-10 on my outrage meter... bootleg Urban Meyer t-shirts register about a 1.5.
(shrug)
Posted 9 months ago # -
mrpoppinzs
Arena District
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You got to give to Caesar what is Caesar's. Looks like OSU was playing fair and gave them 3 cease and desist orders before they took it to the next level.
Posted 9 months ago # -
Walker
The KLD / Downtown / Gay Street
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Timeone said:
I thought skreened was an online marketplace that allowed users to upload their designs, skreened didn't actually create the designs.Correct.
The article makes it sound like these type of cease & desist requests from OSU are pretty much a daily routine.
Knowing that Skreened is a pretty big company now, I imagine that they deal with all types of these requests from all sorts of copyright holders on a regular basis as well.
The only reason this is news worthy is because it's OSU related.
O-H!
Posted 9 months ago # -
rustbelt
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Not that I have any legal expertise but shouldn't the designer be held responsible?
If Skreened is profiting from it in any way I can see the problem. Even just facilitating it with zero profit/charge can be a legal problem, I suppose.
But I do think you're correct that some legal blame can rest with the designer, too. But the time and cost of going after them would almost certainly be cost-prohibitive (unless they had a bunch made and are selling them).
Posted 9 months ago # -
groundrules
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we'll always have cafe press.
Posted 9 months ago # -
HogRoaster
Grandview
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Napster wasn't selling songs, but they got shut down. Rico's pawn shop didn't steal that TV, but they're still required to check peoples' ID when something gets pawned. You can't just look the other way and let illegal activity happen before your eyes...especially if you're a for-profit business.
I was just talking to a guy the other day who downloads images and sells t-shirts on one of those websites. He said he wasn't concerned, and that if it's such a big problem, the owner of these images should go after the shirt-printing company. Well, I guess they just did. There are legitimate businesses, like Homage, that do this the right way....then there are some businesses that intentionally allow the law to be broken. Those who skirt the law ruin it for everyone else and are the cause for otherwise needless rules and regulations.
Posted 9 months ago # -
myliftkk
Columbus, OH
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Copyright infringement is going to happen. The question is, if you're a general service provider, do you have a documented procedure for handling claims of infringement by removing the offending material from your offerings (i.e. YouTube, etc).
Posted 9 months ago # -
kit444
Elsewhere
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rustbelt said:
Not that I have any legal expertise but shouldn't the designer be held responsible?If Skreened is profiting from it in any way I can see the problem. Even just facilitating it with zero profit/charge can be a legal problem, I suppose.
But I do think you're correct that some legal blame can rest with the designer, too. But the time and cost of going after them would almost certainly be cost-prohibitive (unless they had a bunch made and are selling them).
Skreened is responsible in the same way that a flea market would be resonsible for a booth selling counterfeit goods. It's probably difficult for them to monitor given the nature of their business, but Ohio State has to be diligent in protecting its marks.
Posted 9 months ago # -
buckette13
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kit444 said:
Skreened is responsible in the same way that a flea market would be resonsible for a booth selling counterfeit goods. It's probably difficult for them to monitor given the nature of their business, but Ohio State has to be diligent in protecting its marks.Seems a better analogy would be taking a book or a photo that looks like it may have come from a studio to Kinko's and asking them to photocopy part of it for you. From my experience they always ask for written permission, the onus doesn't seem to be on the author.
Posted 9 months ago # -
kit444
Elsewhere
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myliftkk said:
Copyright infringement is going to happen. The question is, if you're a general service provider, do you have a documented procedure for handling claims of infringement by removing the offending material from your offerings (i.e. YouTube, etc).Skreened's User Agreement does have such an IP Policy:
http://skreened.com/static/user_agreement
"Intellectual Property Policy
Skreened respects the intellectual property rights of others. We ask our users to do the same. Skreened may terminate the accounts of users who appear to infringe the copyright or other intellectual property rights of others without notice. Skreened reserves the right to cancel any pending payments or, in it's sole discression, not pay any ledger ballance, in whole or in part, of a user who has violated the intellectual property rights of another party regardless of the content sold.If you believe that your Content has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright and/or trademark infringement, please notify Skreened's Copyright Agent, and provide the following information ("Notice"):
1. an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright/trademark interest;
2. a description of the copyrighted work and/or trademark claimed to have been infringed;
3. a description of where the claimed infringing Content is located on our Site;
4. your address, telephone number, and email address
5. a statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright/trademark owner, its agent, or the law;
6. a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your Notice is accurate and that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright/trademark interest involved.Skreened's Copyright Agent can be reached at: daniel@skreened.com."
Posted 9 months ago # -
Silver Bezel
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Walker, be sure you are getting your royalty check on this one!
Posted 9 months ago # -
Rockmastermike
The Bacon District
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