Copyright Aid

Many thanks for your lengthy and informative reply!

Hi,

So I have a badge for sale on Amazon that is a stylised design of the word "Wham!", like one might see in a superhero comic.

Amazon have suspended this product, saying that it infringes on the trademark of Wham, a brand of Betterware (a company who make popular plastic kitchenware.)

I have ...

Thanks for being a voice of reason.

My partner and I got quite spooked by the whole etsy situation!

Hi again,

Sorry - you must be sick of hearing from me!

My partner and I have been arguing about which designs to get rid of and talking in circles about where to 'draw the line'.

We're settling on purely text designs with simple phrases. However we're worried that some of our designs could still ...

Sorry to dig up this old thread, but I've just spotted that Disney have several registered trademarks for 'Alice In Wonderland' on the IPO website.

Does that mean they have effectively blocked people from using these public domain images commercially?

Can anyone use them and describe them as ...

Thanks, again, AndyJ.

Food for thought...

Thanks AndyJ.

I'm giving up on Etsy. They said I couldn't appeal the decision and will not reinstate my seller account - even if any claims were withdrawn.

It's really galling 'cos Etsy is full of people selling knock off stuff and I do my best to avoid that kind of thing.

What seems to have ...

More news!

I'm afraid my Etsy shop has been closed because of another complaint about infringement. :(

After recent events I went through all my listings and removed anything that I thought would be a problem.

However, I got a 'trademark infringement' email to day because of a pac-man design ...

Further to all this...

After much email discussion with Etsy they have told me that I must comply with all US copyright/publicity rights/trademark law no matter where I am and no matter where any customer is. It's in their terms of use and by using their site I acknowledge that I agree.

So there ...

Hi! I thought you might like an update on this.

Etsy refuse to process my counter DMCAs as they say - and I find this ironic - that "it's not a DCMA issue".

They recommended that I contact the complainant and resolve it with them.

I did contact the complainant, but they never bothered to reply ...

That's set my mind at rest.

Thanks for the comprehensive response, AndyJ!

Hi AndyJ,

Thanks, again, for your response!

There's one thing I'd like your opinion on. On the Etsy DCMA counter notice, I have to agree to the following:

"You consent to the jurisdiction of the Federal Court for the judicial district in which you are located, or if your address is located ...

Hi again, you lovely people!

Got a bit of an interesting international issue for you to ponder...

I sell a badge that simply says 'Every Day Is Like Sunday'. The phase is a song title by Morrissey.

I think I'm right that in UK law a song title can't be copyrighted. I also know that both ...

Thanks for the advice, AndyJ!

I've been selling a slogan badge for several years which says Bring Back British Rail.

Apparently there is a campaign group of the same name and they have contacted me to say that I should be donating all the proceeds from the sale of the badge to their campaign. They also want to know how long I ...