Discussion:
Illinois
Good afternoon and let me thank you ahead of time for any assistance.
I am in the process of building an online tshirt business. I have many ideas for funny sayings that I would like to print on tshirts. Can I copywrite the words used on a tshirt? From what I've read thus far "sayings" are not copywritable. Is this the case even though the language is unique and not generally spoken as a saying? I'm hoping the term "sayings" relates to something like "kill 2 birds with one stone."
Thank you,
Johnny
Answer:
Illinois
Good afternoon and let me thank you ahead of time for any assistance.
I am in the process of building an online tshirt business. I have many ideas for funny sayings that I would like to print on tshirts. Can I copywrite the words used on a tshirt? From what I've read thus far "sayings" are not copywritable. Is this the case even though the language is unique and not generally spoken as a saying? I'm hoping the term "sayings" relates to something like "kill 2 birds with one stone."
Thank you,
Johnny Short phrases are generally not copyrightable, so unless you T-Shirts start to contain a paragraph of more of text, it is unlikely that you could protect the slogan via copyright, regardless of whether or not the language is unique, etc. Trademark is the usual route for protecting phrases and slogans, but trademarks too are limited, and require a lot more paperwork and cost than do copyrights.