Originally Posted by
Themugbox
Hi there, another new guy question incoming.... I am slightly confused and this seems a perfect time to ask. The whole copyright thing seems a minefield to me. It is clear that producing something with a registered trademark would be a breech of copyright. (example : a Mrs Brown's Boy phone cover). However where do we stand in using designs which are dotted around the internet in different forms (a good example would be the bacon and egg mugs mentioned earlier). Who actually owns the copyright for these things?
I sell predominately bespoke military designs to the military however we are in the process of launching a website and would like to bolster our range with a few novelty mugs. Now the last thing I want to do is steal any ones ideas but there are so many similar designs out there that I worry it is a minefield and there are a lot of copyright nazis out there (rightly so in most instances but occasionally a little over zealous in their reactions).
As always advice and help much appreciated.
Dave