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Copyrights and the Sewing Industry Copyrights and the Sewing Industry: Part 2 Fabrics & Embroidery Designs The follow-up by Susan Wigley of Paragon Patterns is just as flawed as her first piece. And we did not think that was possible.

The same Copyright rules apply to fabric and embroidery designs that apply to patterns.

Since she was horrificly wrong in her first article, this sentence predicts this piece will be a disaster as well.

Many fabrics are licensed, such as Disney, Warner Brothers, any other cartoon characters, & Joe Boxer to name a few.

The term "licensed fabric" refers to the fabric being licensed to be manufactured, not that the fabric is sold with a use license.

These companies, as well as others, strictly prohibit the use of their fabrics for manufacturing. Printed materials such as these are for personal use only.

The limitation for personal use only is not enforceable in court. Many courts have ruled that the first sale doctrine preempts the manufacturer's claim to control the use of products after they are sold.

Just because you can purchase the fabric at a fabric store doesn't mean you can use it to manufacture your items, or sell them at craft fairs.

Actually, it does. In Precious Moments vs La Infantil, 1997, the federal court invoked the first sale doctrine in denying Precious Moments attempts to block the use of its licensed fabrics to make bedding for sale. The 1st Circuit Court said making a fabric item from fabric lacked any originality so it was not copyright infringement. Since then, M&M/Mars, Disney Enterprises, Major League Baseball, United Media (Peanuts fabric), Sanrio (Hello Kitty fabrics), and Debbie Mumm, have been sued when these companies tried to block the eBay sales of items hand-crafted from their licensed fabrics. Every one of them settled rather than risk losing the issue in court. In Scarves By Vera, Inc. v. American Handbags, Inc, 188 F. Supp. 255 - US: Dist. Court, SD New York 1960, American Handbags was using towels manufactured by Vera to make handbags for sale. On some of these handbags made with plaintiff's towels there could be seen, at the bottom, the name Vera coupled with the figure of a Scarab or Ladybug, all three of which were registered trademarks of Vera. The judge rejected Vera's copyright claims.

All of the companies I just mentioned require a licensing agreement before you are allowed to use their images for sale in any way, including any fabric, embroidery or screen-prints.

The limitation on use is not enforceable in court. Many courts have ruled that the first sale doctrine preempts the manufacturer's claim to control the use of products after they are sold. If you purchase the image you can use the image.

The general rule of thumb is that if the fabric is a cartoon character, images from TV or the movies, OR if it is fabric is used by a manufacturer, such as Joe Boxer, you can't use it for your business without a licensing agreement from that company.

Again, see Precious Moments and Scarves By Vera cited above.

These companies often send spies out to trade shows and craft fairs to seek out the offenders and prosecute them immediately. They seize the property with their images & fabrics & it can very ugly in a hurry.

A major, major lie. Newspapers and the internet would be full of stories about these events but they rarely occur. Representatives of Oklahoma University and the University of Oklahoma went to a large craft show the weekend of October 26 - 28, 2007. Suzanne Staley, and Judy Barnard seized hand-crafted items bearing the logos of the two universities. These two women then faced larceny charges, among others, for their illegal activities, while no charges, or fines, were levied against the vendors who were lawfully selling items made from licensed materials..

Embroidery Designs are almost always copyrighted and cannot be used for commercial purposes.

The first sale doctrine says otherwise.