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[trutrix]

Alright guys need some help here.
 
Basically me and a friend want to start our own clothing line/business. By this I mean designing, producing (via professional printing service) marketing and ultimately selling the finished product. All of this we have pretty much covered, except neither of us have any experience in this (meaning starting a business, the copyright and legislation side of things) at all as we are both students. From looking at copyright/trademark legislation online I have learned a little, but could really do with the extra help.

So what im asking is if someone could give me some of the basics on design/logo protection , pretty much anything you would consider useful to know for this line of work. Just want to stress to you guys I really am very new to this and dont really understand it to well so please bare with me!

tl;dr : need advice on copyright/trademarking for clothing line. complete novice with no solid understanding of this area.

Should point out I am in the UK, assuming we have different laws compared to the US

Many thanks.

[artchain]

Allow me to answer your question a bit more broadly...

You are right to think about protecting your intellectual property with copyrights and trademarks, but that's just part of what you need to think about.  As soon as you accept money for goods or services, you are in business, and subject to a wide range of laws and regulations.  In some cases, running afoul of those rules can carry stiff penalties. 

So, you will need to do some research to learn the basics of starting and operating a business, as well as understanding intellectual property laws.  And at some point, once you understand the basics, you'll want to spend some time with an attorney and with an accountant to get things set up correctly. 

Here's a page with some ideas on where to find information.  Although it's written for a US audience, I think a lot of the ideas still apply:

http://www.wygk.com/biz/starting-a-business.html

[Kaitlin]

Artchain is quite right.
By way of "for instance", one reason to get legal advice on the form of business entity is that if you don't do that, the law may do it for you and it may not be what you want. 
In the US, for example, anytime two or more people carry on a business for profit, unless proper business documents are drawn up to specify otherwise, they automatically form a "partnership" under law making them subject to certain default rules governing partnerships.  One of those rules is that both of them are responsible for the entirety of the debt of the partnership.  So, if the other partner can't pay his portion of the business debt for any reason -- whether due to some nefarious intent, like skipping town with the partnership assets when the bills come due, or by something innocent but unexpected, like getting hit by a bus and dying without assets to pay back loans taken from the partnership, the remaining partner is on the hook with the creditors.   

[trutrix]

I will read through the information you have posted to me and do some more research! Many thanks to you both for taking the time to reply!