Decals for bikes any copyright issue?

[yachtie10]

Just thought id ask and see if anyone knows
If you were to sell non original decals could there be a copyright issue with some of them?

[MSTRS:Me]

In theory - yes. In practice - prolly not.
If you set out to copy and mass-market someone's decal, you are highly likely to get a visit from their lawyer/s. But if you did the odd one, by request (I'd never do that ) then you are unlikely to ever come to 'their' notice.

[The Lone Rider]

First of all... what are you producing? Replicas of decals already on factory bikes?

Or something with trademarked logos?

Or original design but using a brand name?

Or original pieces of work?

Those are all part of a larger picture. And there's a degree in which you can produce and sell derivative work.

[yachtie10]

First of all... what are you producing? Replicas of decals already on factory bikes?

Or something with trademarked logos?

Or original design but using a brand name?

Or original pieces of work?

Those are all part of a larger picture. And there's a degree in which you can produce and sell derivative work.

Probably all of the above depending on which bike its for

right now you can get farings with original (looking) paintjobs done from third parties

I just wondered whether anyone knows the legalities.

my guess is you will be fine unless you start doing a lot and then maybe a big brand wont like it and tell you to stop (or some copywriting nazi)

[The Lone Rider]

If you want to avoid any issue at all, you need to do 100% original work

The step down from that would be not to use trademarked items (such as the Honda wing logo), and make the design derivative of the original. That means you can make it look very similar as factory branded ones, but you need to have a clearly unique take on it so as to argue it's a unique piece of work using ideas and aspects from another.

Something along the lines of the same design, but the pin striping is different or make an edge rounded on a different tangent, and instead of a logo just put the brand name in text, using a font not the same as their branding logo.

Decals directly using logos, such as Monster Energy's logo with the claw slash, would be the most likely to cause problems, should you get caught.