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[icecube16]

Hello all,

I'm looking for some opinions regarding a t-shirt design I'm having done. I have done a lot of research on IP law, so I will try to break it down into the major facts.

-T-Shirt IS for commercial use.
-One part of the design includes a drawn character that resembles a deceased musician. It is not a photograph but an actual hand drawn character with some likeness to one of the musicians costumes in a music video.
-I do not use the musicians name or any related phrases in the design.
-The t-shirt design does not relate to the commercial interest of the musician whatsoever.

Do you think this issue is an infringement?

Second issue...I made some thing sup to use as an example:

-Title of movie: Day of the Orange Cats...Phrase on my shirt: Day of the Blue Dogs
-Overall content of each is the same

Is that enough info? Do you think that could possibly be taken as defamation?

[Zonath]

I don't see how defamation would apply, but you should look 'personality rights' and 'rights of publicity'.  Basically, if you try to commercialize the likeness of another person, you may end up being liable to that person for the infringement of their right of publicity.