**When I was a young artist and my work was featured in a gallery, I was ecstatic. 

However, as soon as I found out that my art would be featured in this gallery, I had one thing on my mind:  Publicity. 

Every artist dreams of having their work shown at a major gallery. But sometimes they don’t dream about the legalities behind showing their work in a gallery. What if you are sued because your work is being used without your permission?

Most young artists don’t realize that there are certain laws surrounding copyright and trademark infringement. They may not even know what these terms mean. Copyright law states that you have to get permission from an artist before using their artwork for your own profit. Trademark law is similar; it states that you cannot use an artist’s name or logo for any kind of advertisement.

Thing is, most galleries do not care about whether or not you get permission from an artist; they just want to make money off of your work so that they can make more money.*

*This statement has been removed for expediency and does not represent the views of this blog or its authors.*

The work of young artists is often featured in galleries and exhibitions. While this is a great opportunity for them to get their work out, it can also mean that some of their work is on display without their knowledge or consent.

The best way to protect your work is to register it with the U.S. Copyright and Trademark Office as soon as possible. Registering your artwork gives you several advantages. Not only does it put you on record as being the owner, but it also allows you to bring an action for infringement if someone uses your work without your permission. Since registration can be done online and costs only $35, there’s no reason not to do it as soon as possible.

Sometimes, however, even registering isn’t enough. For example, if the gallery claims ownership of the artwork instead of the artist, then their claim will trump yours even if you have a registration. So if you’re planning on exhibiting your works in a gallery, make sure that they’re not just displaying them temporarily and that they’re not claiming ownership of them.

If they are claiming ownership, then there’s another problem: most states have a “work made for hire” exception which would prevent you from bringing an infringement action even if you did have a registration.* To prevent

In the art world, copyright and trademark law can be tricky.

It’s important to note, however, that even if an artist is violating intellectual property rights with his or her work, it doesn’t necessarily mean the artist is intentionally doing so.

The problem occurs when an artist is not aware that he or she is infringing on someone else’s rights, whether it be someone in the art world or a corporation.

In addition to being unaware, there are many reasons why artists may have unintentionally infringed on copyrights and trademarks. Sometimes poor choices of subject matter can lead to legal trouble.

For example, a few years back several artists were sued by Nike for painting sneakers on canvas. The artists thought they were just painting sneakers because that’s what they wanted to paint. However, once a work of art is seen by the public, then it is possible the work can be associated with a particular brand. So although an artist might not intend to use a trademarked image, he or she could still get into legal trouble if someone else believes it is being used in an infringement.

The question of an artist who accidentally or maliciously copies or plagiarizes the work of another artist has a long history, starting in the days when most art was done on a commission from the wealthy. The wealthy often wanted copies of famous works of art, so artists sometimes copied paintings and sculptures to meet that demand. Even today, many artists draw inspiration from other works of art; for example, the cartoon Peanuts characters were inspired by George Herriman’s Krazy Kat.

Trouble can occur when you sell your artwork, whether it is a copy or not. You make money from someone else’s creative work without their permission. Artists who have been copied without their permission have sued for copyright infringement and for trademark violation (or both).

Whether we create, collect, or sell artwork, art is part of our digital lives. In a world that includes the Internet and social networking sites, art has become a complex area of law.

The digital age has created many new opportunities for artists and collectors to interact with each other about their artwork. However, many people who use the Internet may not realize that the legalities behind copyright, trademark and patent infringement are still in effect.

Tagged posting on Facebook can be seen as a form of unauthorized distribution. The same is true for taking a picture of someone’s artwork at an event and posting it on your blog site. The same is true for uploading video footage you’ve taken of an artist painting at an art show to YouTube or the like.

“I’m only showing off my own work.” That’s fine if you’ve been hired by that gallery to paint those paintings. But if you want to sell your paintings online or at other events, then it’s illegal to copy another artist’s work without his or her permission (including work you might have seen online).

You may think it’s cute or flattering to create fan art based on someone else’s characters or designs. You may not even be trying to make any money from your derivative works — but that

In this article , I’ll try to cover the principal areas of concern for a young artist who has just gotten a gallery show. I’m going to assume that you’ve already been through the difficult task of making it through school and are now ready to face the real world.

The first thing you should do is make sure your art is copyrighted. Copyright your work as soon as possible and do not wait for your first gallery show to do so. If you want to read more about why it’s important to copyright your work, read my previous article titled ” Copyright Your Art .”

Now that you’re convinced that you need to copyright your work, let’s move on to the next step. The question is how? Well, if you’re not sure, I have another article in the works that will get into detail about the process. For now though, here are some basic steps:

1) Put a copyright notice on your art. You can find out what’s needed by reading ” Copyright Basics .”2) Make sure you don’t sign away your rights without understanding what you’re getting yourself into. (I have an upcoming article on “Artists Rights” that will go into more detail.)3) Get a digital watermark on your art (again, check back

My friend and I were opening an art gallery. The gallery sold little square pieces of art, collages made from pictures of old magazines, painted with oil paints and framed under glass.

We had gone to a copy shop and made a bunch of collages to display in the gallery. We were going to sell them for $20 each, maybe more.

We went to the copy shop and found a picture of a famous painting by Van Gogh that we liked. We cut it out and put it in the collage we were going to display in the gallery.

Then we had a party at the gallery, which was really just our apartment. We wanted people in San Francisco who knew about art to come see our work and tell us what they thought of it. We wanted them to buy some if they liked it. We didn’t know much about art or how to sell it, but we had decided that this was going to be our first show and so we would learn as we went along.

Some people told us they thought it was great that such young kids were having a gallery show, but most people said they thought our work was crappy and they didn’t want anything from us for free even if we gave it away because they knew someone who could make