I'm 15, is my clothing line I'm starting legal?

[barnett]

I'm 15 and me and my business partner, who is also 15, are going to be starting a clothing line that will be based around hats but we will eventually make shirts and other things to go with this. What we are planning on doing is:
1) Designing the hats at home on paper, then in photoshop, etc.
2) Sending our designs to a website that will embroider our designs on hats and ship them to us
3) We are going to sell our hats around town and school
4) Eventually we will sell our hats online either through ebay or a website, not sure yet. We may be even trying to see if a store would sell our line.
Is this all legal? Do we need a business licence for this? Is copywritng/trademarking our first line a priority/ important? Is there any other advice you could give us? Thank you, I will be choosing a best answer for this please help me out thank you!

[devdutta58]

Wow,both of you are really young entrepreneurs.In my country,we give start-up grants to young businesses like yours.Get the financial support you need and keep it up.

[colum]

Couple of things: You would need to include mention of what state you're in, if you ever want an answer that is relevant to your location. State laws vary, but some kind souls sometimes will look up the link for you.

For instance, some states ignore "business sales" until they reach an established minimum threshold such as $1,000, after which you would need a tax-id number if not a business permit of some sort. Other states exemptions are related to how many transactions you do, such as less than 5 in a month.

Your copyright, if any, is free and automatic. Same for your trademark. You may optionally mark them with copyright and trademark notice (tm not ®) without registering anything. You can register a trademark for a few bucks in one or more states or for $275 in the USPTO, provided it meets the requirements.

A purely "ornamental" work will often be denied trademark registration because it fails to indicate the source and quality OF THE GOODS, i.e., the hats, which have their own brand and label. You might still get it registered as a service mark, if your design is "advertising" some services you provide.

When you have a valuable idea it is often a good idea to get valuable advice, from a local attorney, before you go off and accidentally mess things up for yourselves. More to the point, this answer is not intended as legal advice, only as general information. Your own attorney can explain the relevant local laws applicable for your particular circumstances. There may even be some who charge little or no fee for a preliminary consultation for such a promising business proposition.