 I'm being sued.
Let me start from the beginning...
I used to sell merchandise on Ebay, relating to a reasonably famous pop star/musician. T-shirts, keyrings, posters..that kinda thing. All designed, made, printed myself.
I found myself doing quite well out of it, because to be honest there was nowhere else that had quality products relating to this pop star.
I decided to start up an online shop using bigcartel.com. Basically to sell all my products on my own site, minus all the ebay fees..etc. i just thought this would be nicer, neater, and easier for customers to find me through my own domain, rather than going through ebay each time.
Anyway, my website has been around for a few months now. BTW, When I say it's doing well...I don't mean it's a full time business. It's just a way of getting some extra money on the side.
Yesterday I got a scanned letter by email from a lawyer in Los Angeles (I'm in the UK), from a lawyer representing the company who owns the rights to the official merchandise of this popstar (Bravado International Group). It's basically a lawsuit.
Now in the UK, the laws are different than the USA. No one (famous or not) can copyright their own likeness/image/face/feature. This is confirmed and I was aware of this before even making my website. If I've created the images of this musician from scratch, then its absolutely fine. Also his name isn't a trademark.
But even though I'm pretty sure I'm in the clear, and this lawyer doesn't have a case against me, I'm still quite worried. I've never dealt with anything like this before and I don't know what to do or where to go. I haven't replied to the lawyer yet. I don't know if I'm meant to do that or hire my own lawyer to do that for me. I'm completely lost.
I was wondering if anyone else here has gone through something similar, and if so, what happened...and how did it end..etc..
many thanks
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