Copyright.....a copyright is automatically created on a work such as a design, a written work, a painting, a photograph, etc, as soon as it is executed, i.e. created. This copyright, if it were created today (and has been in effect for a number of years now) is good for life + 75 years, which makes it a good deal. HOWEVER, in order to sue someone for infringement of said copyright, it has to have been REGISTERED with the office of the government that takes care of such things. You can stamp copyright on your work to your heart's content, but unless it is Registered, not going much further in court.
Having said that, when you release something that you have created, you may make restrictions on that release. As a photographer, I may sell a copy of a photo to a magazine to publish ONCE, and should they decide to keep on publishing it every week, I have a case against them and sue. If I have that photo's copyright registered, they are going to be paying me, even if they aren't making a lot of money from it.
Now, the question is, are every one of these designs on these fabrics REGISTERED with the copyright office? And what rights have you been granted with your purchase of the fabric? It seems to me that this is pretty damned murky territory. And since they did send the fabric out with the understanding that it would be sold to the public, what agreement did the original purchaser sign with them? Yeah, they may have attorneys, but I think this is so much hot air, and a fairly decent attorney would be able to tell them to put up and shut up...and get them to pay the fees. Just don't sign any agreements when you buy their fabric.
One had to assume you are not buying the fabric with the intent to copy the fabric. Then they could sue.
Last edited by auniqueview; 01-28-2012 at 03:23 PM.