Patent patterns
 

On QB was a picture of a quilt. I liked it. Thought to self, “I can figure that out”. So I did-figure it out. As it’s shaping up and revealing the design, I’m thinking, “this pattern is amazing, took some planning. Wonder if it’s a published pattern……with a patent?”

Then the resurrected thread about Yellow Brick Road makes a storm with criticism.

I’m feeling more than a little bit guilty for having copied the picture. Now, don’t know where the picture was posted, who posted it, name of pattern. It has a secondary pattern due to sashing. Really quite nice. I think someone needs recognition for the pattern. And maybe $$$ for the pattern.

what do you think? If it’s a patented pattern, should I post a picture?

Here’s a few hints. Hope someone recognizes this.
my block is made with 2 inch base measurement. The block measures 20 inches. If the base measurement was 1.5” the block would be 15”. If the base was 1 inch, the block would be 10”. The pictured quilt was scrappy blue/green. Value was very important to design.
the secondary pattern incorporates the sashing and outside border of each block to make a diamond, between each adjacent 2 blocks.

Not a lawyer but have spent quite a bit of time trying to understand copyrights (especially since I worked in the creative department of an Advertising Agency early in my career. Some people might disagree, but the primary issue is not "personal use" but whether you are commercially using (including teaching) copies.

I think the purely legal is that if you can draw it, you can make it for personal use. Just like you can buy a book about settings and use those ideas however you want. Or, "public domain" designs like (traditional) log cabins or 9-patches. You can copyright the directions but not the block itself.

I can draft up any design, but if I'm outright copying someone's work, I go ahead and buy the pattern. I use the Hazel Hedgehog pattern of an example where I've both drawn it out myself and bought the pattern. There is nothing new original in my abilities to draft patterns. There is a lot original in Elizabeth Hartman's design.

When I show quilts, I do list an "inspired by" if I was indeed inspired by someone else's work. Just like I would list a pattern (or kit).

If it's a geometric pattern - the odds are high that the designer was "inspired" by someone else's work.

My "criteria/conscience" is sort of guided by "how familiar is this pattern? " "How hard did I have to work to figure it out?"
If it is mostly "familiar" blocks - there are all sorts of books available on how to mix and match them. Then my guilt level is low.

If it is something like intricate paper piecing, then I would probably just buy the pattern - if I could easily find it.

However, if the pattern is out of print or not available, my guilt level is close to zero.

I have often wondered how much royalty money Jane A. Stickle's descendants/relatives got from the Dear Jane book and spin-offs. - or donated to the museum. (As far as I know, none!)

So how many current quilting/pattern books have been based on quilts already made?

We see things all the time that we use in life. We design. Can't be helped. All the pattern designers ask is that no one makes and sells quilts or what ever that they have a patent on. I think patterns fall into this category. but yes, we tend to make what we see. Artists do that, metal workers do, etc.
and please don't bite my head off for my post. I never mean to belittle anyone, anywhere.

"I’m feeling more than a little bit guilty for having copied the picture. Now, don’t know where the picture was posted, who posted it, name of pattern. It has a secondary pattern due to sashing. Really quite nice. I think someone needs recognition for the pattern. And maybe $$$ for the pattern.

what do you think? If it’s a patented pattern, should I post a picture?"

Pet, the only part of a written pattern that can be copyrighted is the COPY, i.e., the words. Not the design itself.

Attachment 646425Here it is. Tallest ladder..

Your quilt is downright Magical. Beautiful.

Pet, you are correct. Color placement is important. What a lovely quilt you created to dazzle our eyes.

those are all standard patchwork units, nothing new there. And as sewbizgirl said, it is the copy, the instructions, that are copyrighted. You did very well!

It might be by doug leko, the potting shed.

To me, patterns that have the pressing directions are well worth the price!

If I need the pattern to learn a new construction method or learn a new technique then I buy it. If the units are what I know I can do then I don't buy the pattern. I don't feel guilty at all. I tend to stick to a few pattern designers for buying patterns, Margot Languedoc Designs from The Pattern Basket, any paper piece pattern I like, and I buy Block magazine for Missouri Star patterns.

Petthefabric, great minds think alike!! I also saw that picture and really liked the pattern. I forwarded it to a friend and she came back with the block design. I'm not as far along as you, and mine will be totally scrappy, including multiple different shades of white and cream for the back ground. I'm having a lot of fun, playing with my 2.5 inch strips!

Yes, and the fabric requirements. Unless it's a scrappy quilt, the amount of fabric really helps.

bkay

Beautiful quilt petthefabric. As long as you're not selling, you're good. Love how the placement of colors brings out the design

A lot of the quilts I see are just color variation of some well known blocks and stitched or combined blocks. I don't think a log cabin block could be patented even if has a unusual distribution of colors or fabrics. All of the blocks that I see are just very old designs or just using different colors.. Could twisting and turning or using different colors in a block be patented? Who would own the Log Cabin design? I can see where printed directions that come with some patterns could be patented because I'm sure Grandmother did not get a patent for the directions for the log cabin.

If something is patented, you can go online at the to see if it actually has a patent on it. Just go to the Smithsonian's website and look the patent up. If it's not there, it doesn't have a patent. If the patent number is not on the printed directions, it probably is not patented.

This is a sticky area. I can see where some people misuse other people's work. But, you'd have to spend a lot of money to challenge the patent and spend lot of money just to get a patent in the first place. As a group, I know we don't go around making quilt copies to distribute to our friends. But, I don't think nowadays that people are as ethical as I'd wish. We do our best to support the quilting community, but there are some bad guys out there.

Lots of confusion here between "patent" and "copyright".

Regarding quilting - you cannot copy and distribute someone else's written directions for a quilt pattern without their permission.

You CAN look at a picture of a quilt and figure out how to make it yourself. In fact, maybe you'll come up with a better method! 😁

As an artist, I try to be unique. And respect other artist work. The world has changed so much and so fast that tracking originality is next to impossible. It’s easier to sleep at night if I’m satisfied with my decisions.

Unscrupulous companies mass selling repos of quilts pictured on QB has been reported on QB. It happens.

For me, no money will pass my way for this quilt. And it will be donated to charity.

My reward is enjoying the process. So future projects will include more creativity.

Peckish is right. Quilts and quilt patterns cannot be patented. Quilt patterns are copyrighted automatically when they are written. The patent does not have to be registered for it to be effective.

Copyright just means you can't copy the pattern (the words and pictures) without the writer's permission. This applies even to patterns that are distributed for free, and also to patterns that are no longer available for sale.

A quilt design would have to be very unique for it to be copyrighted. The only example I can think of that might be eligible would be applique. So figuring out how to make something, by looking at a picture of a quilt, and then making it, is not a violation of copyright, no matter how much it looks like the original.

Selling a quilt has nothing to do with copyright. You can make as many quilts as you want from a pattern, and you can do whatever you want with those quilts. (I think the one exception would be mass marketing the quilts.) If you no longer want your pattern, you can give it away, or you can sell it. The only thing you cannot do is make copies of the pattern, whether to keep, to give away or to sell.

There have been law suits over using an image/expansion of international quilt artist in carpeting of 5 star hotel.

There’s other lawsuits over selling quilts made from patterns.

It’s not worth trying to defend yourself in court.

everyone walks a unique path. What works for me, might not work for you. Actually, that’s very good. We should not be all alike. My self image is; very creative. Why would I copy anyone? The best one to me is learning. Since I’ve had a prick to my conscience, it’s important to me and I’m feeling compromised. Can’t undo but can learn.

what I’ve learned; copying didn’t encourage my creative soul.

Yes, and this is a completely different issue than what we were originally discussing. This is using an artist's work without permission and compensation.

None that have been successful. The rulings have been once you make a quilt, it is yours to do what you want with it, with the exception of any licensed graphics, such as Disney characters or NFL logos. Even for those, you can make a quilt with a Buffalo Bill on it, you just can't sell it without entering a contract and paying exorbitant licensing fees first. It's the written directions and photographs of the process that are copyrighted, NOT the quilt itself. In other words, the actual work product of the original creator. My making of a quilt from a pattern is NOT the original designer's "work product", it is MINE. I could even write up my own directions for the same quilt and sell them as a pattern, as long as I didn't use any of the other designer's photos or copy/paste her directions. This is why you see so many patterns for sale for what is essentially the same quilt, even if they do change the name of the quilt.

I once saw a quilt on a blog. The blog owner published a quilt pattern with pictures of the quilt, along with the statement that you were not allowed to reverse-engineeer her quilt and make your own, you HAD to buy her pattern. The funny thing is, that particular quilt had already been published a few years before, and there were even Accuquilt dies on the market to make it. So she was essentially copying THEM. I doubt she knew anything about it, so does that make her guilty of copying them? What's wrong with the fact that sometimes people come up with the same ideas?

So I guess you've never made a log cabin, or an Ohio star, or a Drunkard's Path? If so, you'd be "copying" a LOT of people.

There are lots of problems with definitions and meanings here. The only time I think a person "copies" someone else is if they make the exact same quilt, with the exact same fabrics and colors, in the exact same setting. That very rarely happens, and if it does, so what? I have a friend who has a visual anomaly, something in her brain that has difficulties with processing color. She prefers to, as you would say, "copy" quilts. I don't think she shouldn't be made to feel bad or less creative because she does that.

My current log cabin quilts are improvisational.

yes, I do follow patterns. Usually to be busy, with minimal thinking. Before you jump on me…… I’ve not arrived at perfection. I’m not God. I’m a work in progress. I still need grace and mercy.

The letter of the law was never my intent of this thread. In fact I try to avoid the “letter of the law”. My intent is conscious.

In the garment sewing space, I’ve seen many small pattern makers write that items made from their patterns may not be shared on social media or sold either without attribution or at all.

I’ll leave it to greater minds than mine to opine on whether or not that’s legally enforceable, but I think it’s not nice to do those things if you knew when you bought the pattern that that’s what the designer wanted.

There is a quilt designer who makes YouTube videos of her quilt assembly that makes it quite easy to figure out on your own how to make the blocks, including measurements. But she asks you to go to her website and buy the download, coz she needs to make a living. I think that’s fair.