Legalities in Selling sports related photos and paintings

<p>I am a painter and photographer and was wondering what the legalities are in selling (1) photographs of college football teams (during games/practice), stadiums, the college's campus, etc.; And reselling original paintings and prints of those paintings of the same subjects?<br>

Thank you.</p>

<p>Good question! Probably depends a lot on how you market them. You get into all kinds of issues with something like this. Trade marks, logos, private property permissions etc. Tiger Woods sued over a painting and prints depicting his victory at one of the Master's (I believe it was the Master's) and lost. But you have to look at the terms of your access to getting these photos to get some clues. I think most Universities will look to protect their brand and their sales of related items. A single painting might not catch their attention, but marketing prints most likely will.</p>

<p>You need an attorney on this one but don't expect that to protect you even if they don't see an issue!</p>

<p>Yea, usually Logos and Trademarks are kept under legal "lock and key" so to speak. Best bet is to consult with a lawyer, one thats familar with entertainment and sports law.</p>

<p>I don't do this so haven't looked all that far into it. You can probably lump everything outside of athletics together and probably not need to worry too much about it. Then lump athletics and logos together and have a fair potential for problems. There can be a lot of money in logo'd items (hats, sportswear, etc.) sales and athletics and especially the NCAA are into controlling that revenue flow. While I wouldn't start with an attorney, it might be a really good idea to check with the school's public information office (or similar agency).</p>

<p>The NFL, MLB/MLBPA, NBA, NCAA all require you to obtain (buy) licensing rights to be able to sell photos/prints where team names, logos, player names are visible.<br>

And even if you have the $$ the league may not grant you permission as they may already have an exclusive contract for those items with another company.<br>

Case in point - Major League Baseball - decided that for 2010 they would only grant 1 license to produce baseball trading cards. Even though Upper Deck, Fleer, etc had been licensed for 2 or 3 decades they were shut out this year. Upper Deck has a license with the MLBPA (Major League Baseball Players Association) to use pictures of the players and tried using pictures with logos erased (or no logos) on trading cards but Topps and MLB still sued for licensing infractions.<br>

And to my knowledge only 1 company has the licensing rights to sell 8x10 photos of major league baseball teams and players (PhotoFile).</p>