2016 NatCroMo Blog Tour
As designers, we expect crocheters to respect our copyrights and not distribute our patterns without permission. We believe it is very important that everyone in the crochet and fiber arts industries respects both the copyrights and the trademarks of other parties.
Intent of Our Policy
The intent of our policy is simply to give us assurance that everyone we are promoting has made a good-faith effort to ensure they are respecting the intellectual property rights of third parties and that no one is deliberately choosing to infringe upon the rights of another party.
Your Use of Third-Party Intellectual Property
If you distribute or sell patterns, yarn, tools, or any other products that involve the intellectual property of a third party–popular characters, books/movies/comics/games/tv shows, sports teams, corporations, etc.–you must demonstrate to us that you have made a good-faith effort to comply with all intellectual property laws and requirements. Hopefully, you will have already provided a licensing or other permission disclaimer on all your product listings. If not, we may need a statement from you describing what good-faith efforts you have made. These good-faith efforts may include, but are not limited to:
- Securing official licensing arrangements.
- Securing other official written permission to make use of the intellectual property.
- Consulting an intellectual property attorney to verify that you are not in violation of any trademark or copyright laws.
- Finding a link on a company’s website that demonstrates they have given blanket permission for anyone to use their intellectual property in such a manner. Example: A fan art policy.
- Finding information on the US Copyright Office website or the US Patent and Trademark Office website that clearly show your use is not infringing upon the copyright and/or trademark of a third party.
- Any other efforts you have made.
If you are relying on your own research, we may ask you to provide links that support your belief that you are not infringing or otherwise making unauthorized use of another party’s intellectual property.
If you are unable to provide us with sufficient evidence that you have made a good-faith effort, we regret that we will be unable to accept you into the blog tour until such time as you can provide us with that evidence
Promotion of Unlicensed Products
We will also be unable to accept into the tour anyone who knowingly promotes unlicensed/unauthorized patterns or products or designers/businesses offering such items.
I think we all recognize that it’s extremely improbable that self-publishing Connie Crocheter is going to have a license with multiple large companies such as Disney, Universal Pictures, Sanrio, Children’s Television Workshop (Sesame Street).
Trademark Dilution
Some people mistakenly believe that there are no legal issues with distributing a free pattern for a popular character. Unfortunately, this is not necessarily the case. If the pattern is being distributed for free with the intention of driving traffic to a business website, then that may constitute unauthorized commercial use and/or trademark dilution.
Copyright Issues
In the event of characters or logos that involve a graphical representation (image or animation, for example), there may also be copyright issues involved in reproducing the image in another format (derivative work).
If You Think There May Be a Problem
Don’t worry, we understand that not everyone has a thorough understanding of these legal issues. The important thing is that once you realize these issues exist, you start trying to follow trademark and copyright law in everything you do.
If you currently have items for sale that may be a problem or you think you may have promoted something or someone that’s a problem and you still wish to be part of the tour, all is not lost. Just get in touch with us to discuss the situation. You may be able to take certain actions that will allow us to accept you in the tour.
Remember: When you select a tour date, you are giving us your assurance that you are respecting trademark and copyright law.
If Issues Occur After Blog Tour Acceptance
If we discover issues after you have been accepted into the blog tour, we reserve the right to remove you from the tour. If issues are discovered before your scheduled date, we will contact you to discuss the issue. If issues are discovered after your scheduled date, depending on the situation, we may contact you to discuss the issue or we may remove you from the tour without notice (particularly if you directly promoted an infringing product or a designer/business you should have known to be infringing).
If you are removed from the tour, we will delete all mention of your participation from our blog, Facebook page and groups, and any other social media accounts.
Questions
If you have any questions about whether you meet our requirements in this regard, please feel free to email us at any time.