HELP! Slapped by Zazzle for Pixabay image

Why not just change the slogan to "No farmers - no food!"?

But, and I am open to being put right here, common words, and phrases made from them, can be trademarked but not copyrighted. Any copyright experts here to correct my assumption?

From http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-general.html ........."What Works Are Protected." .....

Those NOT protected and not able to be protected =  titles, names, short phrases, and slogans, familiar symbols or designs; mere variations of typographic ornamentation, lettering, or coloring; mere listings of ingredients or contents.

I Googled "Is 'No farms - no food' copyrighted?" and the second SERP entry from www.farmland.org stated in the description "Spread the No Farms No Food Message!". If you can't use (and I don't see why you can't) the slogan then their message is nonsensical. 

If  No Farms No Food is copyrightable and copyrighted then is No Farms - No Food? Subtle difference but difference it is. Otherwise add attribution with farmland.com underneath.

I suggest you ask Zazzle to send a copy of the copyright documentation related to the alleged infringement. I am pretty sure none will exists!

Chaz, according to Zazzle, AmericanFarmland's lawyer told them to remove it. They are the only one using it on Zazzle. I would imagine if I make a poster and put it up somewhere, they wouldn't care, but my intent clearly  was to make money. I think it's a silly point, but I'm not in a place to argue with them. Yes, my thought too was if they are really trying help farmers and spread the word, you'd think they'd be happy to see the slogan passed around. 

Paula, thanks so much. I really was mortified. 

Digby, I guess I felt like it was sort of a mantra too. I figured I heard it up in NH and it just stuck in my head. Never dreamed it would be protected.

Sheri and Simon, I'm glad it wasn't the image too. That was just too confusing. The emails from Zazzle didn't tell me exactly what was the problem and there was a link to the image but it didn't work. It just led me to believe the image was the culprit.

I'm glad it got straightened out for you Ragtimelil.  All the worry could have been avoided with a more concise message from Z in the first place, so I wonder why they are not more specific when removing products.

I too use lots of Nemo's images, so am glad it wasn't the issue.

Yeah, glad that crisis is over. Today's crisis is someone disconnected and stole a full tank of propane off my camper last night. Never a dull....

Not worth the fight for sure.  Once the lawyers get involved, it will cost you money. Sorry about today's crisis.

Thanks, Paula.

Ragtimelil: 10/16/2012 - 11:17 AM

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Yeah, glad that crisis is over. Today's crisis is someone disconnected and stole a full tank of propane off my camper last night. Never a dull....

Oh man, that is terrible.  Sorry for that.  Aren't your dogs good watchdogs?

Not now. There are so many people walking around and talking that the dogs have gotten used to it. They'd have to actually knock on the door to get the dog's attention. 

I was wondering if someone could put it on their own shirt from Zazzle. If my sister really liked that slogan, could she put it on a shirt I designed? Would she get caught using a trademark on a shirt she ordered for herself?

I do have some template items up there. I have no idea what or if people put their own stuff on there.

Nice one X (Ryan) - trademarking is a whole new ballgame for me. 

Anyone know why a corporation can trademark common words (or phrases that could be thought up innocently) when they have no chance to copyright it?

I can understand 'Pepsi Cola' being trademarked - the Pepsi bit was not a word in a dictionary at the time it was trademarked. But the phrase RTL used consists entirely of common words from a dictionary. How on earth did they get away with trademarking that little baby? It seems to me almost the same as grabbing domain names of the large corporations - which the law courts (if I recall correctly) ruled on the side of the corporation.

Big business - bah humbug.

It's kind of crazy :-P On the other hand, most of us will also know "Just do it" (by Nike) and it's probably trademarked as well ... yep, it is, just checked :-P

So they are all infringing on my freedom of expression - and getting away with it.

If I had the money I would think up thousands of possible simple expressions and trademark them all - thus stopping any possible big business promotion of the future - cloud cuckoo land I know.

Do trademarks have to be lodged in each and every country?

If so, perhaps 'No Farms No Food' could be used on UK goods.

Alright you guys - Go Get 'Em!!!!

Someone on Zazzle told me about this site, in case you didn't already know, you can check on trademarks.

http://www.patentlore.com/tm/tesshelp.htm

Thanks for the 'clarification' Ryan.

I assume therefore that 'Farmless - Foodless'  would be considered OK (unless of course that has been trademarked also.

ryank: 10/18/2012 - 03:56 AM

So saying "yes" or "no" would be me lying basically.... I could make a new word called yesnobe to cover all bases? 

(maybe I should trademark it)

hehehehehe - did you mean 'yesnomaybe'?