Question - Student Tee Shirt Business

A student in the graphic design program, who is also an avid hockey fan, designs tee shirts for her roommates and her to wear to the first game of a weekend long tournament against a rival college. The tee shirts depict caricatures of the two colleges' mascots on skates, dueling for a puck. The caricatures are her original design, but the puck bears her college's trademarked logo and the name of her college is printed boldly beneath the design. The tee shirts are a big hit at the tournament and, before the student knows it, she and her roommates are collecting orders for more. The next morning, they take her design to a commercial print shop with plans to print 40 or 50 shirts to sell at the afternoon game. The print shop employee dashes their plans when he refuses to print the shirts. What's wrong?

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When the student used the college's trademarked logo in her design without the permission of the college, she infringed on the college's intellectual property rights. The logo creates the impression that the tee shirts are "official" college sanctioned tee shirts when, in reality, the college is not connected to the tee shirts in any way. At the very least, the student should remove the logo from her design. She would also be wise to educate herself about the college's rules governing the sale of goods on campus and the laws governing the collection of state sales tax if she wants to try to sell the shirts.