What should I know about clothing line copyrights, trademarks, registering, etc.?

The protection of a line of "clothing" is typically best protected by trademark. Utility patent protection usually does not come into play unless there is something truly "novel and nonobvious" about how the clothing functions. Clothing functionality has been pretty well covered in the prior art, so it is unlikely that utility patent protection would be successful. To the extent that the really clever and creative aspect of your clothing line is its aesthetic appearance, there might be some aspect of your clothing that could be protected by one or more design patents. For example, this is very common in the athletic shoe industry. But, such design patent protection only covers the aesthetic appearance of the object, not how it functions. If there are some artistic aspects to your clothing line, one or more copyright registrations might also be a useful way of further protecting against outright copying of your artistic designs. But, the most obvious protection in my view is through trademark law. A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol or logo associated with your clothing line that tells the consuming public who the source of the clothing is and establishes a measure of quality and satisfaction associated with your goods over time. This intangible measure of quality or satisfaction is known as "good will". An infringer that wants to take advantage of your "good will" may try to use your trademark or something similar to it, in order to fool or deceive the consuming public that the knock-off clothing is the same quality and reputation as the your clothing. Trademark rights arise from actual use and do not require registration for enforcement. However, a registered trademark has procedural advantages (*e.g.*, presumption of validity, etc.) over an infringer in the context of a dispute or litigation. If the infringer's use of a mark raises a likelihood of confusion in the marketplace, you as the trademark owner can sue for trademark infringement and seek and injunction and/or damages. From the limited facts provided, it is quite possible that you would be free to make and sell the clothing line you wish to produce with your new logos and designs assuming that the new logos and designs would not cause a likelihood of confusion with regard your former clothing line company and that there are no other intellectual property protections held by the former clothing line company. However, the specifics regarding your case are best handled by a trademark attorney that has full access to all of your specific facts and better advise you regarding possible outcomes, such as possible infringement or registration of your new trademarks.

It doesn't make good business sense to name your company after an already existing and/or defunct company in the same line of business, especially if you hope to develop a nation-wide market for your clothes. If nothing else, any creditors of the other company may come after you for the unpaid bills of the other business.

Why don't you just pick your own name and avoid all the hassle. If they have it federally trademarked you will have to change your name. Even if they don't you may still have to change your name. Why would you want to sell clothes under the name of another company?

It is a good idea to do a basic trademark screening search before launching to make sure that you are not stepping on someone else's trademark by using a particular name.