Legal Question in Business Law in Virginia

Re: Using a certain product

Decorating a good that is protected by a registered trademark is done all the time and generally causes no problem in the average marketing context. However, you do not want to give the impression that the manufacturer of the cases is associated with your business or endorses your business. That is, you do not want a consumer to be confused and think that you are associated with case manufacturer or that your store (or web based business that displays products) is the source for the official case manufacturer.

If you made your own case and called it by the branded name of the case manufacturer, espcially with no attribution to the trademark owner, then you would be infringing.

Also, one of the things that I've seen done with the decorating, especially with products displayed and sold on the Internet (e.g., eBay or web store) is to file for copyright protection of your artistic designs. Go to www.copyright.gov for more information.

Re: Using a certain product

If you are buying the item with the trademark already on it, and selling the same item that you purchased legitimately, I think there is no problem with it.

Once you buy the item it is yours to resell, with or without changes.

What you cannot do is put their trademark on something that they did not manufacture.