World Wide Quilting Page
Question of the Week
Question for the week of July 12, 1999:
Our question this week comes from Lois
Can anyone tell me some of the copyright laws for quilters. Most applique books tell you to copy the designs and also do foundation piecing books. What if I sell a quilt using these copied patterns?
Fran :
It's okay to use someone else's design
but it is not always okay to sell
it to others. The copyright laws concerning
designs of all kinds are probably the same.
Sometimes a book will tell you that you
can copy and use the designs for personal
use only; others will let you duplicate their
design and sell your rendition of it to others.
If you're in doubt, it's a good idea to
check with the author or the publisher of
the book, or the designer if you know how
to contact her or him. Some will let you,
others will not. If you're selling a few quilts
locally, I doubt that it would matter much. But
if you "go commercial", advertise, and sell a lot
of a designer's work, you will probably
be contacted and be asked to "cease and desist".
Better safe than sorry. Good luck.
Ann Armocida :
I contacted many needlework companies regarding selling finished kits i had purchased. They all responded that as long as i did not reproduce the instructions or recreate an unfinished kit to sell, then the completed work was mine to sell as i saw fit. Do not reprint their instructions or designs and sell those. You should then be ok.
Karen J. Wilson :
It is my understanding that you may copy
a design from a published book for your
own personal use. However you may NOT
reproduce the patern for resale.
Krazkte@aol.com :
This is a real sticky area.Copyright laws state that you cannot resale something that was designed by another quilter. The statute of limitations is two yrs. You are better off asking permission to use the design. But be prepared to give part of the profits to the designer. It is her design!!! If it is a pattern that is still in print, the limitations of 2 yrs goes out the window. Only after noone is making money off the design, is the statute of limitations in effect. A good series of articles in Quilters Newsletter about 2yr ago on this subject.
Mary Sanchez :
From what I have read in various magazines, you can donate the quilt to raise funds for your choice of charity or for your guild, but you can't sell the quilt as your own design or copy the designs to sell for yourself. This especially applies to teachers and to quilt guilds, where you may have a guest speaker who will copy a design out of a magazine and distribute those copies to the guild or class members. I believe that this information was printed in the Chitra magazine, Traditional Quiltworks. I'm sorry I can't remember the issue number.
Leslie :
Quilters Newsletter Magazine ran a series of articles on this subject last year. They said it was okay to copy
the designs from books for your personal use (i.e. to keep or give one as a gift) but not to sell unless the quilt
design was changed substantially, so that it became your own design. They even went to far as to say that if you
show your personal quilt in a show, you should credit the author of the book with the design. It never hurts to
try the author or publisher though; perhaps you could buy some commercial rights for a reasonable cost.
Elena :
This is a question for a lawyer..... Any lawyers in the audience?My 2 cents: check the bottom of the pattern, the front few pages, and the back page for the little copyright symbol. If nothing is copyrighted it should be okay. Also read the introduction - maybe the author specified that use of the pattern for commercial business is okay? If all else fails, contact the author or publisher.
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