Obtaining a copyright...

[scrappinmagic]

What is the best way to go about this? I have an original pattern(s) that I created almost 20 years ago. I have been making these for that long and have sold many. However, I do not have the pattern written down, I just do it by memory and by looking at my original and I've derived other styles from the original. I know they would be simple for someone who is experienced in crochet to just look at and copy and sell themselves. I want to prevent this. I don't even know where to begin in actually writing down the pattern so there are no mistakes!!

[Amy]

Copyright protection applies to written, published patterns. It would prevent somebody from making and distributing COPIES of the written pattern itself. Licensing and contract law (and in some limited cases copyright law) would be more likely to apply, but those would apply after someone purchased or downloaded a pattern from you.

 

Since you aren't distributing a written pattern, copyright protection may not apply in this case. You may need to look more at trademark or patent protection.

 

We are not attorneys, so we can't give official legal advice here. Even if there are attorneys present, they wouldn't be able to give an official legal opinion here, although they could share basic information. But just because someone online may claim to be an attorney, that doesn't mean they're always telling the truth.

 

Since you need information about a specific pattern, my suggestion would be to contact an attorney who specializes in intellectual property law.

[scrappinmagic]

Thank you, Amy!

This was a great help!

[RoseRed]

The sad fact is that you cannot stop people that are capable of looking at a design and replicating it. You just can't. It's not like people even need to look at the real thing - a clear picture does just fine.

 

Copyright is granted at the time of writing out the pattern. Once it's in written form it is automatically copyrighted. You can apply for an official copyright - it's about $50 a pattern. The only time that this matters is if you are suing for money damages. I seriously doubt that finding one person online trying to sell your pattern on eBay would warrant the cost of a lawyer and trial.

 

You may want to write all the variations of your' pattern and create your own book/leaflet/e-book.

[mclendon1]

The sad fact is that you cannot stop people that are capable of looking at a design and replicating it. You just can't. It's not like people even need to look at the real thing - a clear picture does just fine.

 

Copyright is granted at the time of writing out the pattern. Once it's in written form it is automatically copyrighted. You can apply for an official copyright - it's about $50 a pattern. The only time that this matters is if you are suing for money damages. I seriously doubt that finding one person online trying to sell your pattern on eBay would warrant the cost of a lawyer and trial.

 

You may want to write all the variations of your' pattern and create your own book/leaflet/e-book.

 

Thanks for the info RoseRed! I wondered how that worked.

[RoseRed]

yw