Licensing for Official Merchandise?

[Ditata]

Say I produce a certain item and I wanted to do one branded as Manchester United, does anyone know how I would go about applying to become an official partner?

Manchester United is just for examples sake so don't get too hung up on that. Its the principal and process I'm interested in learning about.

 

[fisicx]

You contact the club, company, organisation or whatever and ask. You then pay then a large sum of money and they grant you the rights to use their name on your products.

For some the licence can cost thousands. Others are even more expensive.

 

[Ditata]

You contact the club, company, organisation or whatever and ask. You then pay then a large sum of money and they grant you the rights to use their name on your products.

For some the licence can cost thousands. Others are even more expensive.

Is that from lived experience or just general knowledge?

 

[Mark T Jones]

For clarity, you are looking to use their image/logo on certain items?

If so, @fisicx is correct, though they will want to approve the product and possibly the marketing channels

 

[fisicx]

Is that from lived experience or just general knowledge?

Both

 

[Ditata]

For clarity, you are looking to use their image/logo on certain items?

If so, @fisicx is correct, though they will want to approve the product and possibly the marketing channels

So it would be semi-abstract hand painted versions of the clubs badge / logo on canvas.

The finished product is very easily recognisable as the given clubs badge or logo, using their colours and emblems etc... but it is somewhat abstract as it is made of scribbled 3D lines of paint - its not to everyones tastes but there is a market for hand crafted sports memorabilia.

I'm not even sure if I would need to get their permission as it would be changed so much but I was wondering if there are pathways for such works to be authorised by the trademark holders so a fair contribution can be made to them in exchange for use of their image without having to go through a big expensive process.

Ultimately, if I were to scale up production of these pieces, I would be entirely reliant upon marketing them to the fans of whatever club it is that the emblem relates too so I feel it would only be fair to pay a fee for use of their image.

That said, the scale of production I could achieve would be relatively low such that any contribution I made for image use would not be substantial enough for the club to engage with me ? but if it did reach a level I think it could I'm sure they'd be firing out cease and desists for using their image.

I think I'm talking myself in and out of this here...

 

[Ditata]

Both

Oh cool - what kind of things were you licensing and what were you doing with the licensed rights?

 

[fisicx]

Stickers with the name of a software company. They wanted £5000 and artistic control over the design of the stickers.

There are umpteen threads here and elsewhere about merchandising. There are always costs and limitations.

I seem to recall an article about Disney and £100k+ for a license.

 

[WaveJumper]

There have been threads on this topic before so a search might be in order for some more insights into this. However certainly with the football clubs in particular they all have links for details on commercial opportunities who to contact etc. Many have there eyes and ears open to people abusing their brands and I’ve seen people come a real cropper in this field, car branding and even in the mobile phone accessory arena so your right to be cautious nothing worse than having all your product confiscated

 

[Ditata]

There have been threads on this topic before so a search might be in order for some more insights into this. However certainly with the football clubs in particular they all have links for details on commercial opportunities who to contact etc. Many have there eyes and ears open to people abusing their brands and I’ve seen people come a real cropper in this field, car branding and even in the mobile phone accessory arena so your right to be cautious nothing worse than having all your product confiscated

Will start scouring their websites for details and start reaching out to them for guidance.

Cheers!

 

[AlanJ1]

I'm not even sure if I would need to get their permission

Yes you would.

I would be entirely reliant upon marketing them to the fans of whatever club

This is why.

You are using there product and marketing to there fan base. So you need there permission.

You are going into a mine craft field where almost every club won't reply to you because it is not worth there time or if they do it will be a pricey number through some merchandising agent they use.

I wish you the best of luck but feel you may be in for a long road ahead.

 

[Ditata]

Yes you would.

This is why.

You are using there product and marketing to there fan base. So you need there permission.

You are going into a mine craft field where almost every club won't reply to you because it is not worth there time or if they do it will be a pricey number through some merchandising agent they use.

I wish you the best of luck but feel you may be in for a long road ahead.

Yea I feel its fair too, if someone wanted to profit from my image I'd want a cut so why should it be different the other way around.

? Maybe I'll start with smaller clubs and try to work my way up ?

 

[fisicx]

? Maybe I'll start with smaller clubs and try to work my way up ?

All depends on what you are selling. Smaller clubs may not have the numbers to make a merchandising deal viable. It might be easier to just market the product you have.

Can’t you use your company app to do the research?