Old 03-09-2012, 11:58 AM
  #7  
MdmSew'n'Sew
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Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: a small village about 65 miles north of NYC
Posts: 551
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Originally Posted by LucyInTheSky View Post
I saw a gal on here who is selling her (adorable) shamrock pattern for use with the Twister ruler. I made an American flag with the Twister, where the pattern is a give away for our Shop Hop next month (I work at a quilt shop), and one of the employees wanted to buy it (before I told her it's going to be a give away). That plus all the discussions lately about copyrighting got me wondering - can you make a pattern that uses another copyright tool, for example the Twister, and sell it without infringing on the Twister company's copyright? Obviously I know I couldn't use the Twister's wording for the ruler's insert, but otherwise, would that be okay? "Here's a pattern, here's the layout, use the Twister to cut it up, sew back together - ta da!" Or could the Twister people issue a cease and desist and/or sue? How does that fit into the copyright discussion?

If that were the case, the Twister folks would have been served a long time ago - I have an old book (well, probably at least 10 years old, not antique) called 'Square Dance' by Martha Thompson, where the prototype for the Twister is used to create a bunch of twister-style quilts. So the Twister ruler is not new, they just used someone else's tool design and are making a fortune - in the meantime, I'm still using the plastic template I made from the book and it works just fine.
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