When is a band T-shirt a piece of merchandise, and when is it part of a high-fashion capsule collection? The blurring of the lines has been brought jarringly to the fore with American department store Barneys elling T-shirts from punk band Black Flag for a whopping $250 (£201).
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| lack Flag to Joy Division |
The Black Flag tee comes in brushed Japanese cotton cashmere and sits alongside similarly priced tops from David Bowie, Joy Division, Run DMC and more. In terms of copyright, when a band logo is not trademarked, the designer has questionable legal claim over it.
The Black Flag logo was designed by Raymond Pettibon, and there have been various unresolved claims over the work (not helped by the fact Pettibon is the brother of band founder Greg Ginn). There have been similar wranglings around the Rolling Stones and the AC/DC logo; Gerard Huerta, who designed the latter’s image in the 70s, is said to have received no royalties from it.
Rob O’Connor, creative director at Stylerouge, the people behind Blur’s logo, says: “You are the intellectual property owner of the work, according to the 1988 Patent Act, until you sign that right away.” But other things can get in the way: “There might be nothing in writing to say you created it, or someone may have redesigned it slightly and then it’s credited to someone else. Or an old manager or record company could have extended the copyright without asking,” he says.
Or you could be a friend of the band who just did them a favour. Mark Wagstaff was asked by the band’s manager to design a logo for 80s goth band Gaye Bykers on Acid. “I designed the Purple Fluid Exchange logo for an extra tenner on top of the tenner I was getting to paint her flat,” he explains. “There was no mention of copyright.”
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