Say my name is Happy Dancing Bears...

[doggydoodle]

And I corporate under the name "Happy Dancing Bears".

I want to make t-shirts and want to use my name on my shirts. But to stylize it a bit I may want to put "HDB" or "Dancing Bears" on a few of them instead of the full name.

My question: Is there a place to find out if there are copyrights or restrictions on certain terms or phrases? Say maybe "Horny Dateless Bobbies" are already making shirts and use "HDB" and have that copywrited. Is there a database somewhere to find out before I print 100 shirts with HDB on them?

[ferg2001]

there are websites where you can do a copyright and or trademark search. or a lawyer can perform a more thorough search.

[DenisMutter]

I think you can do a trademark search on www.mycorporation.com.

in fact, I'm almost sure that's where it is.

handy. I believe (lawyers, help me out here) if you conduct a "reasonable" search for current use and find none, and you can document your search, whatever it is, you're kinda covered.

BTW - I know just enough about this shit to get in a lot of trouble.

[Shmogger]

You need to run a trademark search. Copyright does not protect company names.

I expect you will find the phrase "dancing bears" is trademarked by the Grateful Dead for purposes of selling merchandise such as t-shirts and music merchandise. If you wanted to start "Dancing Bears" plumbing company, you'd probably have no problem. But anything related to music and their lawyers are almost certainly gonna make trouble for you.

[DenisMutter]

OK - better - free trademark search on this link:

http://www.mycorporation.com/tradema...linesearch.htm

it's worth a shot, right?

this site has a lot of other good stuff too - although it is pretty boring.

[DenisMutter]

note to self: add shmogger to my atty list.

[Shmogger]

I think you can do a trademark search on www.mycorporation.com.

in fact, I'm almost sure that's where it is.

handy. I believe (lawyers, help me out here) if you conduct a "reasonable" search for current use and find none, and you can document your search, whatever it is, you're kinda covered.

Yeah, I think that's basically correct. But keep printouts of everything.

Also go to http://www.uspto.gov/main/trademarks.htm.

Probably best to use other search engines too. Definitely Google any name or phrase you're thinking of.