Recently i open a thread to sell PRISON BREAK tshirt and has been closed by this two admin. The reason is the tshirt use official logo of PRISON BREAK and they said it is illegal.

When i browse lowyat forum, i come across a thread that sell HEROES tshirt. The seller (sorry i do not want to attack u, i hope u understand), is using HEROES logo and is allowed to continue his/her business.

when i PM stevanistelrooy, here what he said:

"That Heroes T-Shirt thread has been evaluated by an admin, and does not break any of the rules"

Here i paste the rules that they gave to me when they want to close my thread:

This is an announcement to all, in particular to those involved in the printing and subsequent sale of merchandise in the Trade Zone bearing logos and/or names of brands or companies (football clubs, TV show, car, product etc).

Unless you obtain written permission from the respective companies, you may not sell such products on Lowyat.NET. You are most likely in breach of trade mark laws, and the last thing we need is a lawsuit.

If you already have such a thread running:-
1) Close the thread immediately.
2) If printing has been ordered, fulfill all sales via PM.
3) If printing has not been ordered yet, conduct refunds immediately.


I need explaination from stevanistelrooy & RBR regarding this issue. It is important to me and anybody out there to know the "evaluation criteria" (since it do not apply to certain thread).
I do not want to close other people business but, admin should be fair.



Fell free to read the 2 thread below.

http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopic=555763&hl (PRISON BREAK, has been closed)
http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopic=494518&hl (HEROES, still operating)


Response from admin is really appreciated.

tq

hmm.. sound interesting.

You do make a valid argument. Hope things will be settled peacefully.

i come in peace, dont worry bro... he he

wow... all the best bro.. U have a valid point there..

hope everything will be settled fast and peaceful

U just have to live with it.
Humans are humans.
We rarely make perfectly fair decision.
Your situation is just about the same as me a few months ago when i open up a thread for muslims to talk about our own religion & have good chat (of course i won't allow racist remarks)
But in a very short moment the thread is gone when threads for Christians still EXIST (at that time. dont know if it still is now)
Mods don't have to worry. I'm cool now & I learn another rules of life:

Don't expect everyone to be fair. Humans usually just don't.

But u still can fight for it. I support u

thanks, i just need a good explanation from them, that's all.. btw, i love lowyat.net...

TS made some valid points, but then again the "Prison Break" wordings do look exactly like the tv show logo and therefore, could violate copyright laws.

i do not see any "Heroes" logo on the other seller, just quotes and words. but there was one design that did feature the "Heroes" logo (just like on TV) and he was still able to sell that. ("design 2" on his thread)

discuss this with the mods. unless the mods r taking a cut from the other guy, i'm sure some sort of compromise could be achieved.

good luck.

ko ke yg niaga kt putera buat baju prison break tu?

have u pm moderator about this thread ? sometimes we might overlook certain things, nobody is perfect, if there is a mistake, just amend it. life goes on..

This post has been edited by NaMyzarC: Nov 21 2007, 05:00 PM

aku la, kat sana pun dia closed thread aku sebab admin putera kata lowyat closed, derang pun ikut sama... tak best lansung alasan tu....

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Added on November 21, 2007, 5:02 pmyes, i have PM stevanistelrooy, here is his answer:

"That Heroes T-Shirt thread has been evaluated by an admin, and does not break any of the rules"

here are the rules:

This is an announcement to all, in particular to those involved in the printing and subsequent sale of merchandise in the Trade Zone bearing logos and/or names of brands or companies (football clubs, TV show, car, product etc).

Unless you obtain written permission from the respective companies, you may not sell such products on Lowyat.NET. You are most likely in breach of trade mark laws, and the last thing we need is a lawsuit.

If you already have such a thread running:-
1) Close the thread immediately.
2) If printing has been ordered, fulfill all sales via PM.
3) If printing has not been ordered yet, conduct refunds immediately.


This post has been edited by azmi77: Nov 21 2007, 05:03 PM

hahaha kesian kau..xpa2 rilek..ada rezeki dapat la jual..good luck

rezeki ada di mana-mana .. no worries...

If those logos or names have been copyrighted/registered as trademarks, you better make sure that you have valid permission to reprint. Otherwise, it is considered against the law.

Difference between your product and heroes product is that none of those t-shirts has the trademark/registered 'Heroes' term whereas yours clearly spells that out.

Hope this helps to clear things up.

pls check design 2...

Bro good point
That wat happen on me since last time i start my sales
I learn it and try to avoid it.

That's not the official Heroes trademark

care to click here?

http://www.nbcuniversalstore.com/index.php?v=nbunbcnowher

there is one design that has the "Heroes" term:


although not as big as TS's "Prison Break", it's still there and therefore should apply to the same rules and regulations.

zzzz... please check official Heroes trademark before complain other nia..zzzz

thanks..

The official ones is the one printed on the DVD box. Not on the flash screen.

sorry TS, but then again, it's not really a 100% replica, as "Heroes" looks like this:


maybe that's why the mods let it be, although i think the one on the t-shirt also appears on the website, so it's still copyrighted.

This post has been edited by deathbringer: Nov 21 2007, 05:23 PM

we might have overlooked the second design (it was hidden inside a spoiler).

the Heroes thread will probably be closed (or the seller will be asked to remove the design that contains the copyright infringement).

Can't help you much on your design, its quite clear obviously the same as the Prison Break logo.

what do u mean? PRISON BREAK have to close and HEROES still continue bcoz the design is hidden in spoiler?

btw, i have no intention to open my thread again, just wanna express my dissatisfaction..

what he meant was that the design i posted up was hidden in the "spoiler" tag and the mods missed it. but now that it has been brought up, the mods will look into it again.

just a mere oversight. chill man.

so, if i change a little bit of the PRISON BREAK design, then i can sell it again here?

for example: instead of PRISONBREAK, i used PRISON BREAK.... ?

Regardless of the existence of the other thread, to get yours back up, simply contact the people over at Fox and have them email an admin saying you have permission to sell what you're selling.

We'll look into the other thread in the meanwhile.

ic, he should be firm, give the firm answer. if we need to close, then close all. peace..

hey come on man.. well if u see.. McDOnald vs McCurry.. remember? what happen at last ? McCurry was sued.. and McCurry is now known as MCurry.. so what TS said is true. he has a point..

the logo is almost the same and it should not be allowed if u guyz dun allow ts's design.

you might want to read what i said again.

I said we *might* have missed the Heroes logo because it was hidden. Now that you have pointed it out, we will take action. However since the Heroes thread has a few designs, we might ask the TS to remove the design that has the logo as his first design doesn't contain any copyright infringement.

i'm looking forward to see action from you...

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Added on November 21, 2007, 5:29 pmthat is a good answer... i will wait for the change to happen... peace

This post has been edited by azmi77: Nov 21 2007, 05:29 PM

ok.. problem solved !!! hehe.

thanks..

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Added on November 21, 2007, 5:33 pmbtw, HEROES tshirt is already selling hundreds, poor me... poor my tshirt...



This post has been edited by azmi77: Nov 21 2007, 05:33 PM

here's a bit of business advice FOC. You don't have to use the copyrighted logo to make your shirt sell. The back design looks fine enough, just add some other catch phrases from the series and the fans from the show will obviously know its a Prison Break t-shirt.

Be unique. You won't have many buyers if a t-shirt with the same copyrighted logo is selling for RM10 in petaling street.

btw, where is stevanistelrooy and RBR, i hope u read this thread...

the mods and admins are not here 24/7. They will look into this when they get online.

no need to be harsh, what's done is done
se7en hv pointed that admin may hv overlooked because it's hidden in the spoiler
and now they have noticed the Heroes TS to remove the copyrighted design
chill out

ok, thanks everybody.... peace, i will come out with new design.....

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Added on November 21, 2007, 5:46 pmthanks for ur free advice...

This post has been edited by azmi77: Nov 21 2007, 05:46 PM

AFAIK merchandise which bears similar resemblance or derivatives which people can recognize & and relate it to the show is considered violating copyright laws.



anyone more well versed with copyright laws.. ? can put ur inputs

This post has been edited by jinaun: Nov 21 2007, 06:08 PM

By the way, bare in mind that LYN is here for you to use free of charge to promote your t shirt sales.

They are just covering their own skin in case a copyright infringement lawsuit arises.

That doesn't mean you can't sell you t shirts, you just can't use LYN to promote them. Good luck with the sales, and the new design as well

First of all, before you made that Prison Break thread, the Heroes T-Shirt was already check by RBR earlier(way back 1 month or more), and I think there are few design which was uploaded(after the earlier checking) unnoticed by us or we missed it(it's in the spoiler).

Secondly, your t-shirt design was the same as the one that has been closed earlier(by another different user) which was stated on your thread itself.

I act on my own discretion and closed your thread when I saw it.

And pertaining to this design, http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/8392/frontwo0.jpg if I remember correctly, it was not bearing the Heroes logo back then(it might be uploaded after that evaluation).

I apologize if I did not serve you graciously. And instead of pointing to the thread, please point to the design that are involved(in future).

This post has been edited by stevanistelrooy: Nov 21 2007, 07:28 PM

Gosh some people can be really impatient. You PMed me this morning and you expect a reply right away? I do other things besides work on LYN.

I'll look into your issue tomorrow.

case is closed guys.. no heart feeling... thanks for the reply...

I agree with that.

Other than that particular wording, the rest seems fine to me.

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Added on November 22, 2007, 6:19 pmYou're referring to trade marks there, not copyright. But copyright does play a part as well since some merchandise sellers copy it.

Like se7en said, there are a lot of very creative ways you can sell TV show merchandise which is completely legal.

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Added on November 22, 2007, 6:21 pmNo.

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Added on November 22, 2007, 6:22 pmNever had any, I just wished you could be patient when you expect a reply from us. We are busy people.