Tell me more ×
Answers OnStartups is a question and answer site for entrepreneurs looking to start or run a new business. It's 100% free, no registration required.

How do I go about licensing material for use on t-shirts? For example, pac-man on a shirt. What is a typical licensing arrangement fee structure? If the company you are looking to license an image from does not have an obvious policy in place is there a standard agreement you can draft up, or should you get a lawyer to draft one for you?

share|improve this question

2 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted

So I can get you started and hopefully others can take you the rest of the way. You can go to the trademark office at:

http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=tess&state=4008:c8o8ct.1.1

and select "New User Form" to a search for the trademark. For example, "pac-man" returns (results pruned for brevity)

Word Mark    PAC-MAN
Filing Date     April 25, 2005
Owner   (REGISTRANT) NAMCO LTD. CORPORATION JAPAN 2-1-21 YAGUCHI, 
                       OTA-KU TOKYO JAPAN 146
Attorney of Record  David L. Anderson
Live/Dead Indicator     LIVE

From this you can find out who owns the trademark and you should be able to find a licensing person there. I don't think there is any form of standard licensing agreement for trademarks though and you'll have to negotiate with each party you want to license something for and the licensing will probably be based on what you want to use the mark for.

share|improve this answer
Thanks! That was great advice. – ryan Dec 2 '09 at 14:19

Pretty much all companies with strong brands have a licensing department. I would look at your target companies and then Google their licensing/legal department.

share|improve this answer

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.