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I do find this confusing.
I have a hard time with "knowing where the line is" between public domain information/patterns and copyrighted patterns. Some of them sure look similar to me. |
Originally Posted by k9dancer
Most quilts are based on quilt blocks passed down from generation to generation. Most of the time, nobody knows who came up with the original design. Those designs are in the public domain, there is more than one way to make all of them, and nobody should care which technique was used to make it (did you speed cut or did you use scissors and templates?).
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[email protected] can answer questions for you on copyrights for quilters. In every issue of McCalls Quilting, will be informaion on copyrights for quilters.
In the Jan./Feb 2011 issue, it is on page 10. Hope this helps. Helen |
Originally Posted by PatriceJ
techniques are not protected by copyrights.
if a person want to retain exclusive rights and control of a technique, it must be patented. You might as well decide to patent breathing. Now if you create a unique machine, say one that weaves your fabric from leaves collected from your yard, and you can create a working model of it (and you may be able to get by without the working model), and you do the proper research to make sure nobody else has patented a leaf weaving machine that has a resemblance to yours, Then I believe you can patent it. If someone else has patented a leaf weaver, you still MAY be able to patent your design, but if I were you I would consult a lawyer on the details. |
Yup, a technique has to have a certain degree of 'novelty' to be patentable. I don't want to put words in Patrice's mouth (she doesn't need me for that! JK! ) but I think she meant that a technique is governed by patent rather than copyright law. :D
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Originally Posted by Cyn
I never can get a pattern just exactly right so it ends up being my own design.
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Originally Posted by PatriceJ
if you see a quilt somewhere and you know the design is unique and original, the quilt - which constitutes publication - is protected by copyright law. you do not have the right to copy it.
I think part of the confusion is that people don't seem to know what 'unique and original' means anymore. You will see a picture of a log cabin quilt in a magazine, and the caption will say 'designed by so-&-so'. They didn't design the log cabin block - they just used different colors, and gave the finished quilt a different name. So even the 'designers' don't really know. |
Originally Posted by catrancher
I just don't worry about it unless my quilt is to be sold. Who's to know? I'm not going to be published in any magazines, after all.
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Originally Posted by k3n
Yup, a technique has to have a certain degree of 'novelty' to be patentable. I don't want to put words in Patrice's mouth (she doesn't need me for that! JK! ) but I think she meant that a technique is governed by patent rather than copyright law. :D
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I love it when a fairly young quilter informs me that they invented a variation on the most basic of nine patches and are going to get it copyrighted.
Sigh. I also find it kind of strange and presumptuous when someone assumes that any quilt with some similarity in color use or design is copied or even "inspired by" their own. I made a circle motif quilt, completely of my own design, just playing around with the fabric and doing improvizations. A quilt guild member was abasolutely convinced that I copied her favorite blogger -- someone I never heard of and certainly did not copy. Probably we both were subtly influenced by images and styles we've seen in commercial products or current styles, or the fabrics themselves. Similarity in the end results does not necesarily mean that there was any copying going on. RST |
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