Selling Quilts from Magazine Patterns?
#32
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.
#34
Super Member
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Jozefow, Poland
Posts: 4,474
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.
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.
But some of us will always be intimidated by someone else's statement of "this is mine".
Unless the design is actually unique, I can't even imagine how a magazine would know that you got it from them and not from sitting at your own computer using EQ. I have no idea if some of the stuff I've got saved on my computer in my EQ designs folder has been published by a magazine somewhere. I figure just everything I've done probably has or probably will be--and I will probably remain ignorant since I don't get any quilting magazines unless they show up at a thrift store when we are in the states.
#35
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: South Texas
Posts: 584
I bought an embroidery pattern (in another state) that I fell in love with - bought it because of the picture of the finished product, didn't realize it was embroidery until after I got it home and looked more closely at it. After a while, I figured out a way to adapt it to a quilt pattern, Wrote to the pattern designer, and asked for permission to convert it to a quilt pattern, and she agreed, said to give her credit as the designer, which I fully intend to do. I can follow a pattern, but my hat is off to someone who can think up an original design, so I do feel that she deserves to be paid for her work, and receive the credit as the designer.
However, I feel that since the magazine printed multiple copies of the magazine, they have to expect that there WILL be quilts made from these patterns. If I have paid for the magazine, I have paid for that pattern, and can use it to make as many quilts as I choose from that pattern. If I change colorways, or one small design segment, then it is ADAPTED from that pattern, not the exact one shown. However, I would still give credit to the "author" by putting that information on the label, as much as possible. Or say something like "My version of Pattern ABC, from (Quilt Name) Magazine.
However, I feel that since the magazine printed multiple copies of the magazine, they have to expect that there WILL be quilts made from these patterns. If I have paid for the magazine, I have paid for that pattern, and can use it to make as many quilts as I choose from that pattern. If I change colorways, or one small design segment, then it is ADAPTED from that pattern, not the exact one shown. However, I would still give credit to the "author" by putting that information on the label, as much as possible. Or say something like "My version of Pattern ABC, from (Quilt Name) Magazine.
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01-09-2013 01:37 PM