grandme26

Very interesting. Thank you.

sweetlummi

I'm thinking there saying you can not resale it. you are the person and you are using it .

tabberone

You may want to read here also

http://www.tabberone.com/Trademarks/...edFabric.shtml

Of course you can sell it.

Read here on how to title and a disclaimer to use

http://www.tabberone.com/Trademarks/...sclaimer.shtml

IAmCatOwned

This has been a hot topic on many boards. The copyright does NOT extend to the actual use of the fabric. There is an occasional issue if you sell on places like Ebay because the designer of the fabric claims copyright infringement when they have no claim for it. Most have solved this problem by including in the description words to the effect "this item is made using licensed fabric. The finished product is NOT an official product of such and such." Look around, there are better descriptions of this if you are going online with your finished product.

Where it gets murky is if you do a product and show a clear image of it online. For instance, you enlarged a photo of Tinkerbell to show that it was made with Tinkerbell Disney fabric. Disney could get your item taken offline because you are using their copyrighted IMAGE. So, just make it an overall photo of your product.

Evie

I received this timely email from Over the Rainbow Fabrics a few days ago:


Ahhh - here's some interesting info regarding Licensed Goods....
One of my customers sent me this statement that she'd come across on an item for sale on
ebay using NFL licensed fabric

"Legal Disclaimer (sorry, this is for lawyers!): This handcrafted item was made from officially licensed fabric.
However, I am not affiliated with the NFL or the manufacturer of the fabric, therefore the handcrafted finished item IS NOT licensed by the NFL. The United States Supreme Court gives me the right to sell these handmade fabric items according to the "first sale doctrine" upheld in the court ruling of Quality King Distributors, Inc. v. L'Anzaresearch Int'l, Inc (98 F.3d 1109, reversed).

Justice Stevens: "The whole point of the first sale doctrine is that once the copyright owner places a copyrighted item in the stream of commerce by selling it, he has exhausted his exclusive statutory right to control its
distribution."


So I contacted QT and Kaufman and both answers were similar:

"Hi Laura,

I'm no lawyer but in my opinion, the statement is correct.

The goods are licensed to us and we cannot sell to customers who will make products for sale.

But once we sell the goods to you, we can't really control what your customer does with them.

On top of that, I don't believe that you should worry any over what your customer does with licensed
goods you buy from us.

The licensing agreement really only pertains to our sale of the fabric.

SO.....I think that it's OK for you, as my customer, to use Licensed goods to make handcrafted items if you attach a
statement to the product similar to the above statement!"

From my contact at Robert Kaufman

So, good news for you crafters, scrub makers and clothing designers....

BuzzinBumble

Evie - that legal disclaimer and the note are very interesting - thanks for sharing!
IAmCatOwned - murky is right!
Tabberone - here we are reading your extremely helpful website and here you are - a QB member! How cool!

jme

Thanks for that link, that's a great article!

tabberone

Under both copyright and trademark law you can use (for example) a picture of Tinkerbell as long as it's the picture from the fabric. You can't get a gif of Tinkerbell and use that but using a picture of the fabric, even cropped to show the detail is covered under law.

rose2010

I do alot of craft items that I sell at small shows and I was under the impression that you had to make over 100 of an item using a specific fabric "for personal use only not for commercial use" to be considerd commercial selling. I don't worry about it, I'm not mass marketing these products. will let you all know if i get sent to the klink :P

tabberone

There is nothing in the law about a magic number. I see that a lot, like 99 items are ok but 100 items is illegal. Urban legend.