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barr5150

Sports Team Decals?

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A family member has asked me to make a few sports related lures. Just novelty items as gifts. I've seen these types of lures done before but after searching around online I'm not finding what I'm looking for. I basically just need a few small logos around 1" in diameter. 

 

Anyone here done this before? Where did you get the decals? Thanks in advance!

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A word of caution.  Take it with a grain of salt if you like.  All sports team logos are trademarked at the college and professional level.  Any use must be with permission.  Even buying a licensed logo and using it in another work may be a grey area.  

 

Years ago I was involved with a business that traded in novelty mirrors.  They were basically a piece of glass with scenes, logos, and pithy sayings painted on the back side, and then slipped into a paper sleeve with the unpainted side facing out a window in the paper sleeve.  

 

On more than one occasion the company who made them got in trouble for trademark infringement for band logos and names, sports team logos, and well known product logos in their artwork.  A method they used to get around it was to buy logo stickers for the various things and glue them to the back of the "mirror" face down (so it would show on the other side) before painting the rest of the pane.  In most cases when questioned they were able to remove a product from the sleeve and show that the product logo was a legally purchased product that was just being resold.  In some cases they were told to cease and desist selling products bearing a particular logo.  In many cases it was just related to other vendors having protective license to sell logo merchandise in a particular venue.  In others they were actually forced to stop moving products with a particular logo regardless of the source of the actual logo.  

 

I think for "FREE" gifts if you find purchased logos to use you will have zero issue at all.  You may not even have an issue if you use purchased logos incorporated in another work for resale, but there is still a possibility of issue if slim.  Even for free gifts it may be considered an infringement if you are recreating logos copied off the Internet without buying on a per unit basis.  

 

Another area where you can may have an issue is if you advertise them as XYZ Logo baits.  Regardless of whether the actual use of the logo is an infringement or not.  

 

There is one area where I am led to believe you can use a trademarked logo "almost" with impunity.  Where it is a incorporated in a single unique piece of artwork for display as art.  No, 5 crank baits all bearing the Cleveland Browns helmet logo that are slightly different because they are hand painted does NOT fit in that category.  Nor would a set of crankbaits that are all similar each bearing a different one of the NFL logos.  

 

As I said at the beginning.  Take it for what its worth.  

Edited by Bob La Londe
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There was a write up I did regarding this. Bob La Londe is correct. You have to get permission from any school official and or Major League team to use their logo. Now if you are just going to make them for yourself or "Give" a few away to your friends that is not a problem. You "CANNOT " sell them. Any logo that is not exclusively yours is simply" Not Yours". I made some Chicago  sports team logos on some spinnerbaits awhile ago, which I gave away as gifts. Like mentioned here, decal paper a printer, fixative and an image is all you need to do this.

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