Funny this thread should show up as one of my guild friends had put a few quilts on consignment with Keepsake. One of the quilts was a pattern taken off of Quilter's Cache. Keepsake would not take the quilt until my friend had written (email would not suffice) permission from QC's owner for permission to use her pattern in a quilt that was to be sold. The pattern was copyrighted by Quilter's Cache and yes, my friend did get permission to sell the quilt.

Anyone can put a copyright on their patterns but few register them for a fee. This is the only way they are truly protected and would have the right to take legal action. I took a class in copyright law and this is one thing that really got my attention. When you contact a designer it is because of being courteous. Im sure most of the major nationally recognized quilters have registered their works. Good example was when a hotel in Houston had a rug made from a designers pattern. She won in court because the pattern had been registered.

nobody can claim copyrights to a block in the public domain.
nobody can claim copyrights to a quilt layout using blocks in the public domain.
making minor changes to blocks in the public domain do not constitute a new design. they are known as derivatives and copyrights cannot be claimed. same goes for layouts using those blocks.

HOWEVER ...
even when a block and/or quilt layout is in the public domain, the "designer" absolutely does have copyrights - and all associated protection - to the instructions and illustrations in the patterns, books, magazines, etc they publish.

I read that comment to mean you could produce ONE quilt, but more than that would be mass produced.

I am not sure if I had an question about copyright that I would contact the people who would benefit from said statements. I can write anything I want on my magazine or pattern, ;) doesnt necessarily make it true.

If you are confused about copyright rules, the best source of information on what you can and can not do would be a copyright lawyer, not the writers/publishers.

In my study of the issue, pattern designers only have copyright on the pattern itself not on the products made from the pattern. Which is how it should be. Now with that being said, if you are entering a quilt into a show, it might be courteous to notate that the pattern was designed by XX. The poster who said keepsake returned a quilt that didnt have permission. They are an independent company and as such can set rules however they like. It wasnt really a legal thing per se (in my mind) but a courtesy thing and the way keepsake decided to do business.

I agree, if a pattern designer says the pattern is for personal use only, don't buy it. I bought a pattern I really liked and later found the fine print that said you were not allowed to make multiple pieces from the pattern. That designer got her money from the pattern and it shouldn't matter to her/him how many items I make from it as long as it isn't mass produced. To me several items, three or four or any small number would be hard to call MASS produced, so I made what I wanted and totally ignored the fine print. However, I will NEVER buy another pattern from this person so she kind of did herself in with the limitations as far as I am concerned and I do watch for those limitations when I buy a pattern.

That's not what it says. It says can be considered mass produced. The operative word is "can." It doesn't say is considered. I try to listen to those small words. Drug commercials say if you can't afford the drug, the drug company may be able to help. The operative word is "may." It doesn't say definitely will help, but may be able to help. No mention of what their criteria is for that help.

as always this is an interesting post ! My quilting group is making a raffel quilt to be "sold for charitible reasons". In the cpyright wording in the front of the book the designer stated " this quilt may be made for charitible donations. Must have design cresit written on the label" In this case we did not ave to get permission to make this quilt as a raffel quilt .

Also ICLANG- do you buy a pattern with the intent of making the quilt for resale? IMHO- personal use is for your own use or to be given as gifts not to be made for resale. If you want to make it to sell then get permission from the designer.

Over the years I have published several patterns. I too have had many copyright questions from both sides, as originator and as user/seller. There is a lot of misinformation out there. Here is a site that finally cleared it up for me as well as showing a lot of history of abuses, including (perhaps even especially) major pattern producers.

This is just one of several hundred resources they have available. It deals specifically with Quilting, Knitting, etc., but I encourage you to explore their many pages.

Another aside: I did have a specific question for which I could not find a for-sure answer. I wrote them a very concise online email and wonder of wonders, they responded in kind!

Great folks, here: http://www.tabberone.com/Trademarks/...Quilting.shtml

Hope this helps clear it up for you too. Because something is common practice doesn't make it legal.

Jo,
Great reference, thanks for posting.
Kay