Gmail T-Shirt Competition Can’t Have Gmail Logo

Gmail and Threadless have teamed up to hold a Gmail t-shirt contest, asking fans to submit the best Gmail-inspired shirt designs for a chance to win an iPhone, a bluetooth headset, a $400 JetBlue gift card, a $500 Threadless gift certificate, $2,000 in cash and a ton of Google memorabilia.
Sounds cool, but there’s a problem: Even though Google is participating in the competition, the contest policies don’t allow you to use the Gmail logo. Kind of silly, if you think about it. Your design needs to be “inspired” by Gmail, but it can’t have a Gmail logo, and seemingly can’t say “Gmail” either, or contain anything copyrighted. It seems like the problem comes from Threadless’ policies, which they won’t lift even if the copyright holder allows them to! That sure is going to make it hard to get all inspired, won’t it?
(via Philipp)

Original post by Nathan Weinberg