I have all 6 branches but since I am an old Army Veteran that is my favorite o7
I make them on bamboo cutting boards from the dollar store and can turn a good profit as well.
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Just be careful, all of the military branch logos are copyright protected and you have to be licensed to use them and sell products. Each branch has their own licensing process and fees associated with them. And from what I’ve heard, they are pretty protective of their usage.
Thanks for pointing this out…
Yes this is true and very long process and can be expensive and I have personally altered or added to each and every image from size/number of the stars, size of the fonts type of font used, colors used and stuff like that from the “approved” licensed images and made them my own artwork. So in my humble opinion it is sort of like taking a picture of lets say a government building which is owned by the tax payers I own the picture which I can modify in photoshop and sell for a profit which I pay sales tax on as well as income tax. So I am not selling the Government Official LOGO in any way shape or form or stating that I am and in any way. So what I would be saying that I was it is my own version so there should not be any copyright issues unless I am mistaken?
Yeah, I feel the same way, but I suppose it depends how much of the original is retained. I doubt adding a couple of stars would qualify as new work.
I do believe this… I doubt if they would go after recovering less than 4-6 figure$ possible fine. Just stay away from Etsy and Amazon.
Yes, will watch out but I am not ever stating that this is the official licensed logo because it is not notice there are no words in the banner in the eagles beak and the letters are not filled in just to name a few major differences. I do not want to seem argumentative and appreciate the advice in this forum. Thank you for you advice and maybe I will even alter the images even further maybe it would be better to be safe than sorry later.
yeah I just sell at local craft shows so I probably do not have much to worry about.
You should become familiar with the notion of a “derivative work”:
You’re probably small enough to not matter. However, to misquote an old adage:
They can remain plaintiffs longer than you can remain solvent.
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sounds like a big headache to me so I will just give them to my veteran friends and they can “bring the beer” so no payment no sale no foul too much of a headache for me but I Thank you all for trying to help keep me out of trouble.
I was going to bring this up. There are a lot of people that are under the impression that if you modify something X percent, that it isn’t protected any longer. However, as you’ve shown, they are very wrong. It’s very annoying when you try very hard to stay legal, license certain things, etc. and then go to vendor shows when someone is blatantly doing many things without license and selling them for cheap. Even if you’re giving things away, it’s still not legal to produce copyrighted materials.
So I will work on getting permission to use the logos and see what they actually want for me to invest monetary as well as time and then make a informed descision if it is even worth my time and efforts or even worth the headache at all. I have lots of other things I can do with my time I just thought I would show this one thing and didn’t even realize how wrong it was to do this still seems strange to me so many times I have been to art shows and have seen a simple circle painted on a plain background so no one can ever use a circle again does not seem quite right to me but I understand how frustrating this must be and I will try to find out what the correct thing is to do about this and go from there but at this point it I do not know what else to do other than that until I know more? Anyway Have a good night and Thank you for the advice and keeping me out of trouble.
Man create what you want and sell it to your friends. Dont advertise it. The army navy air force aint gonna come after you. Just dont produce disney stuff because they shut down elementary school movie showings.
Its easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. Besides if you dont advertise or keep records what are they gonna subpoena the unnamed people you sold to maybe that one time and sue you for $35? Get real.
There are a lot of very afraid people about copyright laws that have had bad experiences or are too scared from reading articles and like to spread the fear.
Let your creativity flow. Be not afraid. Spread the joy.
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I tried to apologize to the IRS once. They weren’t very receptive.
I ain’t butthurt for somebody using “copyrighted” government materials (how is that even a thing?), but I also know the .gov can be a real spiteful beotch.
There is good reason. I knew a guy in LA lost his home to a no name photographer - cut and dried case of copyright infringement.
Anytime you straddle a legal fence, you are rolling the dice.
Even Disney has to be able to prove you’re doing it to make a case. Of course, if they have your work with their artwork… 
I’d recommend, don’t… besides the simple fact of it being morally bankrupt…
Make them for yourself, no problem… give them away, probably no problem… sell one and you’ve crossed the line and put yourself in a loosing position, legally. This is no different than illegal software.
Think about this, if it happened to you, your business logo trashed by anyone or personal creations stolen so someone else can profit off them?
Think about it, is it really right to do this?
The rule of law is what makes a functioning society, without it we’d have chaos.
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I don’t waffle on this topic usually, but being a government-owned copyright kinda chaps my cheeks.
I am working on a design now that’s a derivative of a piece by a Deviant Art artist. Once I’m done, I’ll email her for permission to produce (if the Head Mistress In Charge deems it worthwhile.)
We’re also very careful with fonts. I have made a couple and it’s very time consuming to make a complete and functioning set. I don’t mind paying for the right one. I’ve got several from VTG that were north of $50ea, iirc. It would take me hundreds of hours to build a font like his, so that’s easy math.
I understand completely, we paid for it …
The rule of law is black and white, unfortunately, life isn’t…
Wasn’t commenting on right or wrong, just it is unless they change it…
I know some of these laws related to other areas, but some details I don’t know. Usually if you make a profit, however recently someone used a landscape image in a church flyer and ended up being up paying something like $20k to them… They clearly didn’t have any any intentions or make any money…
That’s for the judicial branch to decide 
Generally speaking, laws get written when something is abused. Too much abuse causes the generation of legislation to attempt to correct the problem.
Anytime you write legislation it’s a doubled edged sword… both good and bad things.
Yeah. I don’t know the details. It may be a simple matter of requesting permission and receiving a guidelines document outlining proper use. (Scale variations, colorways, whitespace, etc).
Maybe I could just put up a sign or add to the engraving that states this is not an official logo and is not meant to be it is meant to represent my time spent in service to my country and has been paid for with my blood sweat and tears as well as my brothers and sisters in arms? But I am really learning a lot on what I should not do, you all have a way better understanding of this than I do at this point but I will reach out and actually see what they tell me and post it here when I find out.
One would hope they would allow the REAL owners (the soldiers) do with them as they see fit, but who knows.
I think all the discussion is meant to help protect you, not as a criticism of your choice to reproduce the art.
As a member of a family that’s been defending this country in every conflict since before it was founded, I know I certainly don’t begrudge you free use!
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Just to add to this, I believe that all of the Military branches do provide a Hobbyist license, which is less money and easier to get access to for small business. I think there are some restrictions and limitations on what you can do with the Hobbyist license, but there are restrictions and limitations with any licensing agency. In the end, our patent and trademark program in the US are really severely broken and need a major overhaul though. Way too easy to trademark mundane everyday things and start suing people. Frustrating for sure.
Good luck!