If someone wanted me to make them a quilt....I would take them to the quilt shop.....have them pay for the
fabric and then I would charge them for making the quilt....problem solved.

Originally Posted by MrsBoats
This (http://www.tabberone.com/Trademarks/trademarks.shtml) is an interesting article on the ins and outs of trademark protection, and lack thereof. A lot of it boils down to the designers would like it to work like that, but don't have any legal standing. They DO have a lot of money, though, with which to hire bully lawyers to make it seem like they do.
[QUOTE=jaciqltznok;4706410]I wish people would STOP posting this site...it is so WRONG...and quite frankly SHE does not have the time, nor the money to research EVERY legal issue there is concerning the NEW copyright laws!

Jacquie, I have to ask you - what evidence can you present that the website is wrong? I just briefly searched the internet and find evidence that supports her claims. On the US Dept of Justice, Offices of the US Attorneys website I found: "The first sale doctrine, codified at 17 U.S.C. § 109, provides that an individual who knowingly purchases a copy of a copyrighted work from the copyright holder receives the right to sell, display or otherwise dispose of that particular copy, notwithstanding the interests of the copyright owner. The right to distribute ends, however, once the owner has sold that particular copy. See 17 U.S.C. § 109(a) & (c). Since the first sale doctrine never protects a defendant who makes unauthorized reproductions of a copyrighted work, the first sale doctrine cannot be a successful defense in cases that allege infringing reproduction." I didn't see any NEW copyright laws although it does seem there is some discussion of change due to digital media. BUT that wouldn't change the above doctrine. When we buy fabric the copyright holder(fabric manufacturer or designer) no longer can tell us what to do with it. We have bought ownership of the fabric and we can sell, display or throw it away if we want and they have no recourse.
I think these fabric manufacturers, including licensed sports, etc are trying to intimidate people. There is a suggestion that you have a disclaimer for example, if you sell items made from licensed fabric so buyers are clear your item is not an official NFL item but your item made from fabric with an NFL design.

In friendship,

I agree with you 100% there!

This is a problem. Many people aren't reading the previous posts. When there is such an article, this means that many, if not most of the new posters aren't getting any value out of the discussions on p. 2, 3, 4, for instance, because they only read the first post.

Anyway....about the big companies...
I've also wondered how they can possibly get away with this. My sister runs a business, and has received "cease and desist" letters from a company. The big guys do often like to threaten the little companies. However, my sis's lawyer says that the big guy doesn't have any legal precedent to send the "cease and desist" letter, so they continue on.

But...I also wonder why the big companies would bother going after home crafters when it is obvious what they are doing (making them in their living room and can't possibly be actually going into it in a big way) and they ignore or do nothing about the Chinese imports that are really good knock-offs and made in factories overseas and are being imported by the thousands if not millions.

If someone wants to use a certain brand and say that they use "Moda" or "J-Lo" or whatever....it seems like all you are doing is spreading around the brand name til it becomes a household word. Companies normally pay BIG BUCKS for such advertising.

How many of us use words like "Kleenex" to mean "facial tissue" and "Coke" or "Pepsi" to mean a cola or even just a carbonated drink? (Over here they use "Hoover" as a verb meaning to vacuum! :)) These are ultimate compliments to these companies. They shouldn't try to squelch use of their names--all people are doing is spreading their brand around and making it even bigger.

But, I would love to see some real evidence that people have actually lost such a court case to a big company telling them to quit selling their home made craft items. Is there a link anywhere that someone can post here? I'm not surprised that they go around telling people to do this, but can someone give us some evidence to this. Thanks.

Very interesting... Never noticed that on my materials... but will look from now on... I too will stay away... don't plan to sell but as things could change... and would not know what lurks in the stash....
Thanks for the heads up...

The most often referred website is www.TabberOne.com. She started this website after she had multiple run ins with big corporations regarding her use of licensed in items she was trying to sell on E-bay. She won. Another website I found is www.quiltingbusiness.com/quilting-copyright.htm. He references TabberOne in his article. In addition go to http://www.owenandemma.com/ralph/ralph.html. They have a detailed exchange they had with legal representatives of the Ralph Lauren corp. and they also give a couple of court case examples. And - if you co to ebay today and search "handmade Ralph Lauren fabric or handmade NFL fabric" you will see handmade items being sold using those fabrics. Some of the sellers use disclaimers but most do not. I also saw an ipad case made with Stars Wars fabric.
Get yourself a cup of coffe and plan on several hours - it all makes for good, but time-concuming reading.

I agree I won't buy their fabric either then!

Last week I received some fabrics that I ordered to make my grandson a grey quilt. As I was laying some of it out, I discovered on the "plain" selvage, not the one with the manufacturer, color dots, etc. a notice that the fabric is not to be used for anything but personal use. Now if you went into a store and were to look at the selvage for this disclaimer you would not see it, because it would be on the nonvisible selvage on the bolt. This really irks me. And the thing is, this is just dotted fabric, nothing special about it. Here are pics of it. If I didn't need the colorway so badly for the quilt, I would return it and complain.

This has already been discussed extensively. Look for threads in the last month. You can use fabric you have purchased to make and sell whatever you want. Even those who make stuff from licensed fabrics can ignore the bullying. Licensing is required for a maker of the fabric, not the user of it. So, go ahead and ignore that selvedge stuff. It falls under the same doctrine as used books.

Totally agree...yeah Amy Butler!

I agree. I shall not purchase anything that has commercial on the selvage.

Yah!...what she said:)

My goodness! How crazy is that!!! I think it's just about the stupidest thing I've heard all week... If we can't use the fabric any way that we want to, they shouldn't put it out there for sale... Case closed!

OK , OK, if you want someone to receive these comments find the fabric manufacturer, wholesaler or designer and send the comments to them!!!!!

I agree with others, We are a big group of buyers, let's not buy from these mfg. and/or designers. We might not have any idea what we are going to do with fabric when we buy it, once we have it we should not be restricted in how we use it.

How bizarre can things get these days? What with all the "politically correct" language, Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas, now you can't buy a fabric, make a quilt and sell it???? I think some idiot just sits around thinking up the next stupid restraint to put on us....UGH

Whoops. It seems you have proven Noveltyjunkie's point exactly.

I read 4 pages replies and have come to this conclusion: 1. This is utterly ridiculous! 2. If I buy fabric, it is mine to do with as I please. I am not some big 'manufacturer' I am me, alone with my sewing machine and maybe make less than 100 pieces to sell at a flea market, or I use it for my own projects to keep or give away at my own discretion. 3. If the designer thinks that much of their fabric that they feel that they can tell me what to do with it, they can keep it all to themselves! I don't need someone, whom I don't know, telling me what I can and can not do in my own home with fabric of all things!! 4. The price of the fabric is high enough now that it is hard for some of us to purchase it and if we do make and sell something from it, we are not only giving away our time and craft, but are loosing money because there is always someone with their hand out wanting a cut of what you are doing, let it be booth rental or sales tax or fee to sell or fee to collect money, ect.. in the end, it is just another hand that is trying to double dip into our already empty pockets for the lint that is left! 5. Look what happened to the embroidery world when the designers started telling everyone where they could use their designs.. that market has dropped off like a lead balloon. It got to the point that the only designs you could use were ones that you digitized yourself, and then you had to be careful of the line drawing you used!

I say again, this is utterly ridiculous!

JM2C
Susan

Found a thomas kinkade ( spelling might be wrong) beatiful print with the cottages on it at Walmart guess what it said " not of commercial use"well that lost my purchase

Yes, it's like buying flour at the store....I can make bread but not cookies!!! I'm all for complying with copyright laws but I think this is taking it a little far.

Thus far in my life I have not made a quilt to sell nor do I plan to do so. However, once we purchase the fabric it should be ours to do we as we wish. Therefore, I will not purchase any fabric with that warning and I will make this clear to the owner of my quilt shop. I doubt she will want to see it setting on her racks if we aren't going to buy it.

I will definitely look at this from now on and will not purchase fabric if it has that on the selvedge. I do a lot of charity quilting and I also do a small amount of selling and if you want me to purchase your fabric, then you better allow me to do whatever I want with it as long as I have paid the price for the fabric to begin with. What aggravates me is that this stuff isn't free. It's not like their giving it away and saying, you can do this but you can't do that. Should be able to use however we see fit once we pay the price.

Sorry, I had never heard that once purchased I had restrictions on what I could or couldn't do with fabric. That makes absolutely no sense, and furthermore how would a fabric company or fabric designer ever know? In my opinion, this is just plain silly!

I made a t-shirt quilt with team logos on it and someone told me that it was not legal to sell. I bought the shirts at thrift stores, so who is wrong here? These people should be proud that we take something old and make something better with it.

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.

BTW, Team Logos and Company Logos aren't copyrights, they are trademarks. They also have to be registered to carry any wallop, but you can bet they are.

I sell a few quilts maybe 2 or 3 a year. I make sure the pattern doesn't have any restrictions and will not buy patterns from those designers and now will add the fabric. Greedy!Greedy!

I guess we are supposed to manufacture our own fabrics if we sell anything made from fabric! sigh. I cut selvages off and never look back.

That is ridiculous...how will they enforce that???

Neighbor is a lawyer-- Not for commercial use is the dumbest thing ever printed on fabric for sale to home sewers. His question was why buy the snob fabric in the first place. LOL