Patent/Copyright Issues for protest T-shirts - Need Info

A friend and I are planning to set up a website on the internet that posts free weekly T-shirt designs for Iron-on printouts. The designs would be our own as well as others that people email to us.

The T-shirts would mostly be humourous and in protest of the Vietna,uh sorry, Iraq war as well as poverty issues and other things. There would also be T-shirts that condemn the conservative Australian liberal party as well as the American Republican party, which for the sake of truth and humanity, we would like voted out by 2008.

It would be a grassroots effort, welcoming input from people around the world, to make our little contribution to getting everyday people to THINK.

Our only fear about the site is that people could get a hold of the free designs and patent them, therefore making us unable to distribute the designs for free on our website. Does anyone know about patent/copyright laws work, and if the scenario I described could happen, how we could stop it from happening?

 

even if they try to patent them ..you have copies and records of dates you posted them on the internet ...............when i did shows i wanted to copyright my shows ..my lawyer told me all i had to do was make a tape and send it registered mail to myself and not open it ..if a dispute arose i had the original material and the date of said material ...not sure how things work in the united states but that is how it works here in canada

 

wow...i'm in the process of setting up my own tee biz and i've been going through the same stuff. I'm designing most of my line and i'm working with the whole copyright process right now. It does cost $$

basically the only way you can cover yourself is to copyright--thereby owning--your designs. Then of course if you are accepting designs from other people you must make them aware that you will be copyrighting them for your organization. And even as grassroots you'll still need to register as an organization...i think in Australia. I don't know exactly because I am trading in Oz, have my IBN # and all that but still about a month from going public with it.

wealth of copyright info here has been very helpful to me:
http://forum.freeadvice.com/archive/index.php/f-39-p-4.html

Plus you wanna make sure everything is copacetic as you don't wanna get into an UGGly sitchiation

 

Thanks that was really useful.

I'm guessing it costs money to copyright items?

 

Yeah it does. And I think there are different types as well, like international or national, the wider the scope the wider the price tag rah rah rah.

I do really like your idea as well. I think an 'ideal' for me in the future would be to make available free tshirts backing causes and charities...lil pro bono for the community action. Of course first i need to make money to have free stuff to give away

 

Thanks mate!!! That advice is perfect