The Rarity of NFL Patches

It seems as though NFL merchandise is tightly controlled to the point where you must either buy directly from them online, or you must pay top dollar at a licensed sports memorabilia shop.

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http://www.thecheapplace.com

If you've ever tried to buy cheap NFL merchandise you've probably been frustrated by the noticeable lack thereof on the open market. It seems as though NFL merchandise is tightly controlled to the point where you must either buy directly from them online, or you must pay top dollar at a licensed sports memorabilia shop. All of that is by design. That's why you can't find NFL items on the vast majority of websites where patches are sold. When you do find them they are either extremely expensive or they are illegal copies from unscrupulous sources. The Reality of Copyright Restrictions For patch artists and distributors, the reality of copyright restrictions means that they cannot just produce anything they want. Producing patches using copyrighted images is a violation of the law unless written permission is granted. And even when it is granted, patch makers have to pay royalties to the copyright holder. With the low profit margin that comes with dealing in embroidered patches, it's often not worth paying royalties just to carry a licensed product. Even cheap knockoffs of copyrighted images need to be used carefully. If they are close in resemblance to the real thing the manufacturer could find himself in court facing a copyright infringement suit. Things get even worse if the image in question has been trademarked. Suffice it to say, any patch dealer or maker that violate copyright or trademark laws could potentially find himself out of business very quickly. NFL Patches The NFL is far and away the most profitable professional sports league in history. They are a money making machine that hasn't lost money in a very long time. One of the secrets to success is their tight control of intellectual property including their logos, team names, color schemes, and so forth. Anyone who wishes to manufacture or sell any NFL-related items must get licensing approval from the league and must conduct themselves in a specific way in regards to NFL merchandise. The league watches very carefully to make sure all the rules being followed. The NFL also goes out its way to continually look for those selling league merchandise without a license. If they catch someone, they will come down extremely hard to make them an example. With such tight control the NFL is able to limit supply, control the markets, and keep prices on the high end. And since they have no real competition in the area of professional football, there's really no way to prevent them from doing so. Now that you know a little bit about copyright and trademark laws, you can understand why The Cheap Place doesn't carry NFL patches. However, they do carry a full line of military patches that are extremely accurate. That's because military logos are in the public domain and cannot be copyrighted. Artists and patch makers are free to borrow military logos and images, or even outright copy a military patch down to the last stitch.

Click on the link below to visit our website:

http://www.thecheapplace.com