Tartan copyright question

[figheadair]

By the by, the MacLean tartan appears to be pre 1815, and the STA site does not have any copyright info listed at the moment (lawyer letter pending), so I will take that as a, well, it's probably OK for personal use, maybe?

No, the MacLean isn't copyright nor could it be as it's far too old. I'm not a lawyer but I understood that Copyright Law had a time frame, 70 years I believe.

[TheOfficialBren]

In the US copyrights for intellectual properties (usually) expire about 70 years after the death of the author OR copyright holder.

That is the nutshell version of US copyright law relating to creative works (tartans would fall under that).

Source: I am an active musician in the entertainment industry who produces, licenses works, and holds copyrights and is familiar with the filing practice. It's part of my bread and butter to know.

Notes: Tartans may *technically* be interpreted as trademarks (a whole different issue aside from copyrights) but realistically the gentleman's agreement that goes along with Highlandwear convention leaves it very safe to bet that no "clan" tartans will ever be trademarked..especially in the US. The risk of backlash in various forms would be substantially greater than any benefit gained...which would be marginal.

The Burberry Check and Thompson Camel tartans is an example of two *similar* but NOT identical tartans that have toed the line but in all reality do not actually clash legally. I am not sure about UK copyrights and trademarks, though.

I'm sure that an attorney/barrister/advocate is a member of the forum. Please feel free to correct anyting I may be mistaken about. My experience is (admittedly) from a recorded media background and may not apply to tartan.

[Pleater]

A word of caution on printed patterns - be sure that you are going to get them printed squarely on the fabric.

I have some expensive heavy cotton which has owls on it - lining up the pattern is impossible as there is a half owl difference between one selvedge and the other.

The only thing the fabric can be used for is patchwork or motifs.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[usonian]

I've used Spoonflower and have been generally happy with the results, although it's worth mentioning that their process (at the time of this post) results in weakish blacks (they tend to come out more like a charcoal grey,) and that large areas of dark colors in general can be muddy - it's definitely worth having a swatch printed before committing to a whole garments' worth of cloth. If you search the site there are also a number of color charts that people have designed - you buy a yard of fabric printed with the chart pattern, and get a pretty representative range of colors so you can see how they translate from screen to fabric.

And I'll second David Page Coffin's shirtmaking book- It's still above my skill level, but I've paged through it and it's well organized, well illustrated, and thorough.