Hi Lori here with hard-working mom and welcome to Thursday business tip so I
see this all the time and I thought it would be a really great thing to do a
tip about so I'm gonna do a tip about trademarks and copyrights because there
seems to be tons of confusion especially in the craft industry about what is
copyright protected you know what is a trademark what can you do what can't you
do so I thought it'd be a great idea to do a tip on this so let's talk about
this okay first let's talk about trademarks okay so this right here so
this is a little football okay and it has the symbol for Carolina so this is
the Gamecock this is a trademarked item so what that means is that the the
university actually has a trademark on this symbol and the wording the colors
so on so forth so if you use this on a wreath if you use it on a craft if you
put it on a sign yes you better not sell it okay because if you sell it you have
just violated their trademark and guess what they can see you and just because
you might have sold something in the past and it was fine doesn't mean that
you won't get caught this time so this is a pretty simple example let's talk
about Disney okay even things like the Grinch
Mickey and Minnie Mouse those are all copyrighted and Disney takes their
trademarks extremely serious so that means if you do a wreath and you use the
little ears and the round you have violated their their trademark even if
you don't have a Disney character in there if you reproduce it in any way and
you can tell what it is guess what that's a trademark violation
so here's my advice okay don't sell it don't sell it with anything that could
be considered a violation of their trademark because you can get fined
heavily and I do mean heavily so let's talk about what you can do okay you can
you can still do it you can still do a wreath with any of these items if you're
making it for yourself if you're giving it as a gift absolutely you can do it
you're not violating their trademark you've purchased it from someone who has
purchased a license in order to sell these
so crafts outlet Sims pottery Carolina pottery a lot of these stores have
purchased licenses in order to sell these products so in order to sell this
I would have to go to the University of South Carolina and get a license if I
wanted to sell something that was Disney I would have to approach Disney and I
would have to get a license and I can tell you those are really expensive even
for college football so what can you do to get around that so let's talk about
this you see this so this is just an ornament
that has red and black on it I can use this in a wreath and you know I can make
it door to themed but I can't say Georgia football wreath okay because if
I say Georgia football wreath guess what yeah I violated the trademark but if I
say red and black football wreath I'm fine so you just have to be very careful
so you can find things okay so like I could use this for Alabama I could use
it for South Carolina as long as I don't say in the title that that's what I'm
doing as long as I just say I could even say crimson and white football wreath
okay so people who like those teams can buy this and then they can add something
to it and make it their own you could sell a wreath that has all of the colors
in it because their trademark is very very specific to colors and when you buy
things like this this is a generic color okay so you see this is a very specific
color this is generic color so you can tell right that it is slightly different
so that's perfectly fine you can do that look here so you see these are Tennessee
colors but there's nothing on here that is trademarked for Tennessee okay so
it's fine to use this it's even fine to use this because it is not specifically
the trademarked item it's fine to use something generic like this okay so that
covers trademarks and just so you know if you get a logo and you don't want
anyone to ever be able to use that logo again you can apply for a trademark
yourself okay it's very specific very very
specific it has to be an original piece of art you have to own a hundred percent
of the rights to it and you know I'm they're very specific about the colors
you know the text what's in it it can even be the font of the text but you can
apply for them you don't really need a lawyer to do it you just go out on the
website for trademarks and you can apply for it right online you can apply for
copyrights online as well which is the next subject okay so let's talk about
copyright so copyright laws protect original pieces of art illustration
literature so a song can be copyrighted a book can be copyrighted things like
that what does it not protect it does not protect a method methods are not
protected under copyright laws you can look this up on copyright org and it is
very specific what it says a method is not copyright de Bowl okay so let's take
for example unique in the creek so they have that a patented way that they do
their flowers and there is a board that comes with that and that is copy righted
because of the patented board but you could get the board and do something
else with it that is not exactly what they did and then it falls outside of
the copyright so you have to be very careful when you are working with things
that are copyrighted okay let's talk about
zip ties okay so you can't copyright you can't use zip ties in your craft and say
it's copyrighted because guess what this is a general-purpose item and if a
patent is held it's held by the company that owns these zip ties and not every
day crafts people this okay so there would be a patent on this which means
you cannot copy this design however if you use it in your craft for its
intended purpose even if you use it for something that's outside its intended
purpose not copyrightable that you actually use this piece of equipment
okay so that would be considered a method actually using this to cut your
mesh your fabric because that's its intended use
it is a usually these are like utility patents okay
so anybody who uses this you know they're not violating that copyright
because that's its intended use okay so you cannot go out and use this and say
you can't use this method to do your Reese I've done it before because guess
what the only person that holds the patent and the copyright to this is this
company right here okay we don't own the rights to that they do so we can't go
out and say you can't do it this way because that is considered to be a
method alright so let's talk about a wreath or a sign or something else if
you designed it absolutely that can be copyrighted
but this is the very specific thing about it it would have to be exact
the same down to the last thing used in order for a copyright to protect it so
if you if you bought a SVG file off of Etsy and it says from the designer who
made it you can use it up to 50 times and you do 51 guess what you just
violated your license right so you have to be very careful but you don't need to
worry about doing something like if you see someone do a wreath and they use the
poof method then absolutely you can go out and use the poof method because
guess what's method that's not protected if you see someone use a bunch of zip
ties doing something that's not protected that's a method if you try to
copy exactly what that person did then yes absolutely
you're violating a copyright because those those laws are there to protect
designs illustrations original works of art so if you'll make a wreath that is
your original work of art but I'm gonna tell you if somebody else goes and makes
one just like it the chances of them getting it exactly the same are pretty
much impossible okay so yeah I I don't want you to think that you can't use
other people's methods that you've seen them use just be very careful that you
don't use a patented method okay so if you like we talked about the board so
unique in the Creek has the patent on her board and so if you got the board
and you used that board to make exactly the same one that she has patented you
violated it if you buy the board and you do something else with it
you haven't violated it you couldn't copy the board and sell it because that
would be violation so you see how this works
just be really careful don't use trademarked or copyrighted items in your
work because you will get in trouble don't use those tags on Etsy if you are
selling your items that you've made on Etsy if you put it in your tags guess
what you've just violated that trademarked item and they're copyright
so you don't want to do that you just be generic okay don't get yourself in
trouble if you really want to be able to sell it then by all means you contact
each individual company such as Disney or a college to buy the license rights
and you have to buy them for a year and then next year comes around and you're
gonna have to buy it again okay and it can be really expensive it can be
thousands of dollars so you know they're they're lending out the right for people
to use their license and they're spending they're getting thousands of
dollars for that absolutely they're gonna protect it okay so they have
people who are scouring Facebook and YouTube and things like that and they're
looking for people who are using their trademarked items and then making a
profit on it so don't do that so you know when I've made things like I've
made things with a Disney I give that I've gave that to my brother because you
know you don't want to mess with something that is trademarked or
copyrighted there are protections for reason for those people but just
remember you can't copyright a method unless it is something that is very
specific that is covered by a patent like a design patent okay
so let's talk just a little bit more specifically about the example that we
talked about with unique in the Greek so if you purchase the board and you
purchased the tutorial and you did it you can certainly sell the wreath
however if you purchase the board and you purchase the tutorial and you share
it or show someone else how to do that you have violated that patent you
violated their copyright and absolutely she would have every right to go and sue
you and actually wouldn't be good okay so yes it is almost impossible for you
to copy exactly what someone else did it's not really violating the law if you
do that however you know you need to have professional courtesy so if you see
someone else make something and it's it's very popular so let's talk about
the the person who did the pineapple wreath last year all of us went and did
a pineapple wreath that was like hers and you know it's professional courtesy
to not try to copy what someone does exactly because I mean you know if you
made something that was unique and it was great and it became a great seller
you wouldn't want everyone else to go around and copy exactly what you did
because even if they're not violating your copyright you know professionally
it's not really great so I know when I did mine
I made it different I made it mine and that's fine yes you're taking
inspiration from what they did but you make yours different okay so that's just
common professional courtesy to do that and that would be my suggestion if you
see something that you absolutely love it doesn't mean that you can't go and
make one like it but you need to remember that
need to make it your own you need to make it different because you want to
respect that person and respect their their creation okay so I'm sure this
will bring up some questions for you so make sure to put them in comments and I
will come back and answer and I will be doing another tip next week and I think
next week will be on inventory alright so have a wonderful day and I will see
you next Thursday bye bye
you
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