Home   >   Daily Wire Jewelry Tips   >   Daily Wire Tip Dec. 12: Making Wire Jewelry from Patterns, and Copyright

Daily Wire Tip Dec. 12: Making Wire Jewelry from Patterns, and Copyright

By on December 12, 2009
Print Friendly

Daily Wire Jewelry Making Tip
December 12, 2009

Question:

How do I get permission to sell the jewelry that I make from the patterns I get from your book and the DVD`s I bought from Wire-Sculpture?

Answer:

First, let me thank-you for your personal code of morals and ethics! With so many unscrupulous people out there today thinking nothing of taking published patterns, rewriting them a bit, adding their own pictures and then offering them for sale as their own tutorials, as designers we all respect someone like yourself.

When a designer/author publishes a design/pattern, we mean for you to use it to make either direct replications or your own versions, with the intent of either selling your work or giving it away as gifts. In the United States, two things not allowed and covered by copyright protection are reworking or duplicating the published directions for your own profit or claiming and advertising/selling a design as your own original. This applies even when selling your ‘inspired’ version, which on a small scale, can usually be covered by using a phrase such as, ‘Crystal Brooch Inspired by Jane Doe’. What ‘Inspired Design’ means has been defined in the United States federal court system.

Federal registration of a design does not have to have been done for an artist/author to be covered by Copyright laws, and as it is 100% possible for two or more people to design similar things in different parts of the country within a similar time frame, the burden of whom the design belongs to legally will usually depend on proof as to when the design was created. This is a good reason to document your work with photos, notes and sketches as soon as you can. An easy way to ‘copyright’ your design is to put all of these things into an envelope and mail it to yourself, certified, and when you receive it, do not open it, rather put it into your safe or safety deposit box. With all of our electronic abilities today, an easier way is to save everything on your computer, burn two copies to CDs, keep one for yourself and send the other to a trusted person to hold as extra security.

To read more about copyright laws in the United States, follow this link: https://lawdigest.uslegal.com/intellectual-property/copyright/7263/

And again, thanks so much for asking this question!

Answer contributed by Dale `Cougar` Armstrong

Have a question? Submit your question here!

9 Comments

  1. avatar

    Linda Mayo

    December 12, 2009 at 10:38 am

    Thank you for such informative newsletters. I really appreciate them.

  2. avatar

    LinRae

    December 12, 2009 at 11:00 am

    A great guestion! I have been concerned about that exact thing. I have used them for gifts but made none to sell because I was worried about copyrights. This clears everything up for me. Thank you.

  3. avatar

    Ellen McCrindle

    December 12, 2009 at 3:23 pm

    Very good question and answer!! Very informative. I saved it all to my computer. Thanks for the information.

  4. avatar

    Rose Marie Heard

    December 16, 2009 at 10:48 am

    Thank you for the information.

  5. Pingback: Getting Permission To Use Jewelry Patterns

  6. avatar

    Koko Chinen

    March 31, 2010 at 9:30 am

    I am a jeweler to sell my products at the crafts fairs. I also was wondering if I could sell the things that make from the pattern or from magazines. It will be helpful for me to know. Than you for the question.

    • avatar

      dalecgr

      March 31, 2010 at 9:35 am

      Hi Koko,
      Yes, the same applies to patterns published in magazines.

  7. avatar

    carolyn seager

    March 31, 2010 at 10:55 am

    I found myself looking in a number of books on beading and just a few wire wrapping books, but while looking one day, I thought – I don’t want to copy the pattern of another person. I have seen so much work that I love in different magazines that I am glad to know these patterns can be used for those of us making jewelry to sell. Thank-you!

  8. avatar

    Robin Hudson

    July 5, 2016 at 9:10 am

    Hmm, I’ve been wondering the same thing. Now my question is, what if the thing I make is not EXACTLY the same – I change it in some way by necessity or because I like my idea better, for example a wire necklace design that calls for one type/color bead or wire, but I substitute something else? It’s all so confusing!