OK. Talked to my neighbor, who is a lawyer and handles some copyright cases.

This is for personal not business advice:


If I buy a pattern and make the item from a pattern I can do what I want with the made item. If the design is not licensed the designer cannot legally tell me what to do with my made item. It's my item, not my design. He said it's very simple to be legal: buy a pattern for every item I make to sell from the design. If my made item is being displayed in public, the creator of the design should always be given credit.
If the design is licensed (Disney, Coke, Sport Teams etc.) then I have to have permission to make a replica of the design and then the owner of the design has the right to tell me what I can do or not do with the item. If I buy from a retailer that has permission to sell a licensed design then I can do what I want with the made item. Example: Licensed fabric design with logos or characters.

thanks BellaBoo. That is the way I think it should be. I read the link to the copyright page (govt link I think) and let me tell you, that is about as English as Japanese to me.


Any other people who know an attorney have any thoughts?

I do a lot of research into court cases. If you consider the large number of patterns produced by McCalls, Butterick, Vogue and Simplicity, just the large companies, there is not one federal lawsuit that has gone to trial that involves the use of their patterns that I can locate. One reason is the lack of registered copyrights by them. Also, anyone who decides to get into commercial use of a design will have patterns done professionally for their machines.

Quilting patterns require much more originality and effort than the clothing patterns marketed by the big companies. But it still comes down to what the copyright office says is a requirement for registration: originality. While arranging blocks may constitute some originality, the final design must be original enough to qualify for registration. I have not found a single federal court case where an unregistered design has won in court.

This is the most polite board I have seen. Everyone here discusses the subject without getting personal. That is refreshing to see.

Apple has a patent on the iPhone, which is very different from a copyright.

I agree, patents and copyrights are apples and oranges (lol I made a pun) But really, that's a lot easier to find the line than copyrights. I wish someone would just say once and for all this is how it is, and this is how it will be. Black and White, no Gray area. It's the Gray area that gets me.

JJs wrote:

"I just checked the copyright information in the EQ7 book and I think I'll be using EQ exclusively for designing my own quilts."

I feel the same. Magazines and websites exist for the advertising, so you'll see rehashes of patterns if you keep referring to them, and using patterns you found or bought just carries too many risks. As for the instructions, EQ7 gives you the cutting details and even piecing templates, so at what point are you using other peoples' work?

At the end of the day, if I have a record of what I designed, I think it's really hard for anyone else to claim I "stole" it.

My question is: What is the simplest way to find out what blocks/patterns are considered to be in the Public Domain?

I did come across something else that might need its own thread: a fabric that had "Sold for non-commercial home use only" stamped in the selvage. I put it in the gift-quilt fabric pile, cos if I made something and sold it, Murphy's law says it would end up in front of the fabric designer for sure!

(My great-great-grandmother was a Murphy, wonder if that's why it always happens to me?)

Thanks to all for a very interesting discussion.

Isn't that like copying a painting and then selling it as yours? It's not your design, you should give credit.

thank you Va quilter, I agree!

Clothing designs and patterns are not subject to copyright. They are specificly not covered though that exception is often challenged.

I have to jump in here. I am a pattern designer and belong
to a pattern designer's collective. Copyright issues are discussed
regularly. The statement "My quilt instructor said that if a pattern is modified 40%, you can call it your own and sell it as your own and the items made" is completely wrong. When someone designs a pattern, provides the graphics and writes
the instructions, that pattern is their copyright. It is a complete misnomer that you can legally change a certain percentage of
the design and then call it your own. Also, the designer does have the right to say what can be done with that pattern and
limit whether or not items made from it can be sold, and if so, how many can be sold. I sure would like to know where the person got her facts that made the statement 'the designer doesn't have the right to tell you what you can or can't do, no
matter what they try to say'.

The suggestion that you look at Sylvia Landman's site is a great one. She is an authority on copyright laws and it clears up a lot.

Until you become a designer and try to make a living at it,
it is hard to understand the 'why' to some of these things, but
I can say that I have a completely different perspective on it
now that I am on this side of the coin and not just merely
someone who uses others patterns for my projects.