Copyright question

[PistolPete]

I'm curious if anyone knows the rules if I were to design a T-shirt that references a fictional location or company from a movie or TV show? Assuming it's an otherwise original work - not one that copies a design seen on screen.

I often see such things on print-on-demand sites like Redbubble & wondered how 'grey' an area it is?

 

[@GCarlD]

I'm no expert on copyright law but I don't see why that would be a problem unless the name itself was copyrighted or a registered trademark, which by the sounds of it, is not.

I can think of a couple of examples where registered company names were used as fictional locations in movies and vice versa.

If you want to be extra safe, maybe you can change the spelling of the word a bit, whereby it could still be pronounced the same.

 

[AlexC]

It's an interesting question indeed. I have also noticed such things on Redbubble. I thought it was interesting to know how they interpret copyright. They are pretty big and people can upload their designs on their platform which can then be sold. This means that Redbubble is at risk of getting complaints about copyright which could ultimately lead them to legal troubles. Redbubble has two criterion when people want to upload their designs. One of them must be fulfilled. 1. You should have a license from the owner. 2. Your use is regarded as fair use. You can find more information in the links below:

https://help.redbubble.com/hc/en-us/articles/211725743-Copyright
https://help.redbubble.com/hc/en-us/articles/211725823

I'm not an expert on copyright questions. But generally it shouldn't be an issue to reference to a fictional location.