Dear Rich: I have a question. What if I painted a logo for the Stanford football team on some rocks. Could I sell them at Stanford games? I'm so glad you asked. There are two problems with your plan. First, team logos are protected as registered trademarks, so unless you licensed the use, you'd probably get a nasty letter from someone like Heath Price of the Collegiate Licensing Company, who recently announced, "[I]f somebody took a rock, and they painted Michigan Wolverines in blue and gold on that rock and went out to try and sell it as a for-sale product, that's protected." The second problem is that if you sell them at games and some of your customers throw them at competing fans, that could lead to personal liability issues ... although it could also increase the demand for caskets with sports team logos.
To learn more about licensing and how you can legally obtain a logo like the Cardinal's, pick up a copy of my book Getting Permission: How to License & Clear Copyrighted Materials Online & Off (Nolo).
