Licence for print designs

blodlesme

New Member
Hi guys, I'm kinda new here, so don't get mad if I am asking something that already had been asked.

I recently started making this product and I was wondering can I use characters from BBC, FOX, MCU, DC etc, and cause I kind know what you'll say how do I get the license from them ?

I am seeing a lot of indie companies around the web, not big, nothing special, are using a lot of designs from them.... and they are selling things...

So how do you get permission to use these characters in your designs for commercial use?
 
These companies have licensing departments and they sell the rights to use imagery that they supply and it's usually quite tightly controlled.
To do it legit, these are the people you need to talk to.

This doesn't stop people from using things without permission or creating their own (fan art).
I guess the "fan art" route would be a bit flaky in a legal sense.
Or...by just ripping off which is what I guess a lot of these smaller, indie companies do.

Years back I used to work for a t-shirt company.
They used to produce some t-shirts with Disney characters (without permission) in some rather rude settings and Disney caught up with them in the end.
 
scotty thanks for the reply. So even if I draw my own pictures of Darth Vader , for example ... I still need to contact the licencing department of Lucasfilm and get permission to print the design on my product, right ?

Is it hard to get licence, asking from experience you have , and what is the approximate price for that ?
 
I'm not quite sure about if you draw your own.
I've seen loads of t-shirts based on say Darth Vader and I'm sure they haven't been through the licensing thing.
Then again. I once submitted a t-shirt design to Threadless and it was declined because it had a Lego character in it.

I don't think it's hard to get a license and I guess it depends on the company but it can be expensive.
When I worked with "licensed products" I just made the designs. I didn't deal with the licensing or the money.

I guess it's a bit of a grey area and I'd imagine that by selling a t-shirt with Darth Vader on it technically infringes copyright in some way.
Thing is, would Disney (who now own it) track down everyone that did it?

Would this be an infringement?
A kid with a Darth Vader helmet on?
My head hurts now. :(
 

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DC comics has recently started taking legal action aganist people publishing 'fan art' for profit.

It wont be long beofre the rest follow suit.
 
It's such a flakey area.

Done in the style and subject matter of Bill Watterson depicting Star Wars characters?

calvin-and-hobbes-star-wars-brian-kesinger-2.jpg
 
DC comics has recently started taking legal action aganist people publishing 'fan art' for profit.

It wont be long beofre the rest follow suit.
On one hand, they're perfectly entitled and encouraged to protect their IP. On the other hand, it's an absolute PR nightmare and is only going to piss-off DC fans. Rather them than me.
 
To contact them to ask for a licence permission would be fine, I think like BBC or something like that would not charge for the licence for a single print or small amount of print.
 
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