You might have doubts about printing certain designs on t-shirts and other types of garments in fear of copyright infringement. However, we’re here to help you wrap your head around the basics of copyright for t-shirt design. Whether this is to sell, to wear, or anything else, you can crack on with printing high quality designs once you understand copyrighting! Our blog will cover topics surrounding the definitions of specific terms, ways to avoid them. We’ll even discuss where the boundary is before the law comes into play.
If you’re looking for a quick answer, scroll to the table in our blog. We’ve summed up the do’s and don’ts of printing on a t-shirt. If you’re looking for more detail surrounding the topic and the UK laws, read through. Here is everything you need to know about copyright for t-shirt design.
What is Copyright?
Copyright is a form of protection for the owner of creative content to officially claim it as their work to do with as they please. Whether they prefer to make copies of it, sell merchandise of it or promote it, they have rights. Copyright law applies to creative fields such as literacy, art, music, education, etc. Copyright for t-shirt design is tricky for this reason, but there’s ways to avoid infringement!
Using content that has copyright and is NOT owned by you can get you into serious trouble (and that’s what we want to avoid).
So what is copyright infringement exactly? Simply put, as a general idea, using any copyrighted content you don’t own means you’re breaching certain rights. An owner has rights that you’re (even unintentionally) claiming for yourself. Regarding the t-shirt printing industry, copyright rules are very clear: you can’t print out any design you see and think that makes it yours. Using any form of artwork that isn’t yours is already a breach of rights unless the owner has specifically permitted you to use the artwork. It’s usually hard to do track down the creator, but there are ways around copyright.
How Do I Avoid Copyright Infringement for T-shirt Designs?
The best way to avoid infringement with copyright for t-shirt design is not to use any artwork you find on search engines or social media. The image you find is likely just a screenshot or a variation of a copyrighted image. This will come back to bite you if you print the design and sell it to someone. Instead, you can take inspiration from these sources and create your own design.
Hire a graphic designer to create prints
If you’re not creative, we recommend hiring a graphic designer. You can provide them with reference to the image you’d like as inspiration. Most likely, if you’ve found a good designer, their mind will be full of ideas! Though the graphic designer is creating the artwork, you will still have ownership of the design as long as you have a contract with them to have ownership of any content produced by them. If you do not have this contract, the law for copyright infringement will be against you – you may be in hot water if the designer decides to claim the design as their own, especially since they’ll have access to the original file. More on protection from copyright infringement will be mentioned at the end of the blog.
Use Google to find copyright free designs
Another way you can easily access copyright free images is through Google search. Here’s what you do: go to the Google search, input anything within the search bar. We are searching ‘cartoon design’. After this, select ‘images’.
Once you’re in full view of the images section, select the ‘tools’ option and you’ll see additional options such as size, colour type and time. Along with these there will be a ‘usage rights’ tool. This is where the copyright-free images can be accessed. Click here and change the option from “all” to “creative common licenses”.
What is a creative common license, you might wonder? All the images that the search refines in this section are images that have no copyright attached and are free to use. Images that have not been included within the section have commercial and other licenses, so make sure you refine the search using the tools available.
What can I legally use without copyright for t-shirt design?
In most cases, you wouldn’t be permitted by an owner to sell their artwork since you’d be capitalising off of their work. However, it doesn’t mean you can’t use their artwork as inspiration. From a legal side of things, anything you see online would have a form of copyright labelling, whether it’s a copyright logo, or a disclaimer below the image. If it’s not directly on the image, this doesn’t mean it’s free to use. The image you may be seeing may be a copy of the owner’s work. AVOID THIS, unless you want to get mixed up in illegal activity!
If you’ve found an image on Google and you can’t find any source to claim it’s a copyrighted artwork, we recommend you still leave it be. This is because multiple sources may have variations of someone’s artwork. It’s not safe to use unless you can track down the original image through a reverse search or link. Another thing to note is that any reference to registered businesses, teams, clubs, etc., cannot be used on t-shirts. Those organisations most likely have official ownership of their brand name. Unless you’re their supplier (who’s job is to print their brand), you won’t be able to have ownership of said names and brands.
What can I do if I need copyright for t-shirt designs?
This doesn’t mean you can’t use ANYTHING at all. Things such as national logos, coat of arms, flags, etc., can all be used. This sort of branding isn’t copyrighted as it’s a nationally recognised branding which represents the country. In other words, it’s not owned by the royal family or government and is available for public use.
If you REALLY want to use creative designs you have seen and are fully aware of who owns the copyrights, there’s no harm in reaching out to the creator. They may have no interest in making money off their design and might give permission. But like it’s been stated before, unless the artwork you’re looking to acquire the rights for your use is ORIGINAL and not ‘resembling’ something else, you can ask the owner of that artwork. If their artwork resembles something else, like a fictional character or celebrity, you’d have to approach the official owner (which is unlikely that you’ll hear back from). This includes video games, tv shows and other animations.
What is a Public Domain?
A public domain is where any creative work that has expired copyright or non-copyright at all can be found on this platform. For the most part, the images are completely safe to use. However, we recommend you still double-check the ownership of any image you find to avoid trouble.
From a legal point of view, you can pretty much print anything that you come up with by yourself as well. This even includes a random brand name you’ve thought of. The trickiest type of copyright infringement lies with recreations of TV/film/video game characters and any other fictional being produced on digital media. Individuals recreate similar images all the time – the best thing to do is find an image on a public domain.
A Simplified Table of Copyright Rules
Check out the table below, where we’ve listed exactly what you can and can’t do to stay safe in the industry.
DOs of Copyright | DON’Ts of Copyright |
| Do use image listed as free for commercial use | Don’t use images if they are NOT listed as free for commercial use |
| Do use your own creative mind/hire a graphic designer to use inspiration from public artwork such as characters, to avoid resemblance | Don’t use any artwork that resembles fictional characters (even if it’s drawing of a video game, TV/movie character) |
| Do use parodies of famous figures recognised publicly | Don’t use images of public figures such as celebrities |
| Do use images you find on the public domain (the copyright on these images are expired) | Don’t use anything you come across on Google or social media (inc. memes) |
| Do quote literature from figures that have been deceased for 70+ years | Don’t quote trademark material such as author’s published literature |
| Do create your own unique styles of characters, logos, brand names etc. if you don’t need inspiration for them | Don’t try to recreate something from scratch that you have seen (it’s still copyright infringement) |
| Do use national flags, symbols and coat of arms (they are not listed as copyrighted material) | Don’t use names of public companies such as music labels, schools, businesses etc. |
Can I Gain Copyright for T-shirt Design?
There is automatic copyright protection on any creative content you produce that genuinely has no resemblance to other content. Therefore, if you’re printing a design on a t-shirt, you have already been provided with ownership. Any artwork you create should be kept in its original file format (i.e, PSD, ai). If you are going to convert the file, make a copy of the file format first and THEN convert it into a jpeg, png, SVG, etc.
What if I’m a Victim of Copyright Infringement?
In this case, you are the owner of official copyrighted content that has been used by someone else; there are laws to protect you. In the UK, the law for copyright infringement is very reliable – as long as you can prove you created the content (by keeping the original content files as mentioned above), CrimeStoppers can step in and investigate the problem.
It’s also a good idea to watermark any original content that you do post online. Whether it makes it unsightly or not, it’s best to be safe. If you’re looking to distribute your content to the public via sales and merchandise, you can submit your artwork to suppliers to print for you, as they are there solely to print the job.
Innotex Transfers Can Help You Custom Design Heat Transfers
If you’d like custom designs for t-shirt printing, Innotex Transfers can supply you with ready-to-press heat transfers. We can also produce your artwork on ready-to-press transfer sheets in various sizes and quantities of your choice, ready for you to stamp on your t-shirts! Contact our sales team at 020 3617 8710 and discuss your custom transfer requirements. Alternatively, you can also fill in the form and we will get back to you as soon as possible.