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I am dipping my toe into print on demand e-commerce. I had the idea to do a car calendar, but I'm uncertain if the images themselves would fall under copyright/trademark. Some of the images are my own and others are from a royalty free website. Any advice on how I can find out if cars and other images are copyrighted/trademarked? Also, what's the difference between copyright and trademark?

Bob Macaroni McStevens
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Sharon Staniforth
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1 Answers1

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  1. There is no such thing as "copywrite" or "copywright" - it's "copyright", the right to copy something, nothing to do with writing.
  2. If you made the images (and weren't doing it "for hire" for someone else), you own the copyright. If you got them from "a royalty free website", you need to read the T&Cs of the website.
  3. All images are copyrighted; some may be released under a license which allows you to use them. If you don't know what license they're under, you almost certainly can't use them.
  4. Images themselves cannot be trademarked. However, the subject of the image (cars in your case) can well be; you will need to ensure that you do not infringe on their trademark by in any way implying your calendar is associated with the car manufacturers.

I would advise you to have professional advice if you're going down this route; it could be very expensive if you get it wrong.

Philip Kendall
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