I just don’t quite get the principle here

Why aren’t you allowed to knit or crochet using a pattern and then sell the finished items you’ve made yourself? I get that you can’t sell the patterns under your own name—but why not the finished product that I made with my own hands??? Everyone crochets or knits using patterns all the time, even the ladies at a craft store. They sell the finished knitted or crocheted items in the store, too. This is too much for me to wrap my head around. I’ve seen a lot of crafts here that were crocheted exactly according to other people’s patterns, just in different color combinations or sizes. How can someone claim that the pattern is their own intellectual property just because of different sizes or their own color combinations? I really don’t get it. Example: a baby hat with a butterfly. I can find the pattern for that freely all over the internet, just maybe in a different size or color. How can the person selling a similar baby hat then forbid others from selling their own creations—even if they’re made using the same pattern? Maybe I’m just missing something—but right now, I just don’t get it.

Hello pepsitralala,
welcome to our forum and to the Crazypatterns platform.

Finished products
Here at Crazypatterns, each designer can decide for themselves what may be done with the finished product, whether it may be sold or not, and if so, in what quantity, online or only at markets. If in doubt, please simply ask the respective designer (m/f) what is allowed and what is not.

Similarities between patterns and other patterns online and offline
It can’t always be avoided that patterns have similarities without any bad intent. But a baby hat with a butterfly can be designed in many different ways. There is a lot of creative freedom there. Normally, that has nothing to do with copying.

Please be careful with plagiarism accusations - only if there is concrete evidence can we look into it
If you or another user here has concrete evidence that someone has directly copied a pattern 1:1 (with small changes or even no changes at all) instead of being creative themselves, I would like to ask you to write to me or Operator Alexander directly by PM = private message. But again, please be careful with accusations of this kind. A designer’s reputation can be ruined quickly. Concrete evidence can include links, screenshots, or PDFs, for example. Hearsay, rumors, vague hints, patterns that somehow look somewhat similar, etc., do not count as concrete evidence.

@pepsitralala
are you currently asking about the selling rights for the finished products from a specific pattern, or more generally?
If you mean a specific pattern, then I would ask you to write that here or contact the designer in question directly and clarify it with them.

I hope you continue to enjoy browsing on Crazypatterns
If you have any further questions about the patterns, for the experts, or about technical aspects, feel free to write them here.

well, I normally don't concern myself with the principle of Crazypatterns, but I did get the impression that things here generally work with sellers and customers and patterns and all the DIY. I like it the way it is here on Crazypatterns. I mean, there are tons of DIY patterns on the Internet, something for every taste, I think. but here on CP there are a few nice extras, and I believe I'm not the only one who likes that.
@pepsitralala
I get the impression that you're not entirely happy with CP. Have you been reading along here for a while, or did you just recently join? Do you have experience with other craft platforms, or is the whole topic of an online platform completely new to you?
are you someone who likes to make and sell DIY items?
I mean, if that's the case, if you enjoy doing that, then you should ask the respective sellers of the patterns, and then you'll surely find a compromise about being allowed to sell and so on,
Have you already tried asking the people who made the patterns?
you can talk to most people, after all, and such.

I mean, the way it is is that the creator of the respective DIY pattern also has the rights to the pattern and to the idea and the model. If the idea weren't theirs and hadn't been worked out by them, then it wouldn't be worth buying it and making it. If you sell something that you made from a pattern, then yes, you made it with your own hands, but the idea for it still belongs to the author of the pattern, and therefore selling is not possible if the author doesn't want that. I don't sell anything at markets or anything like that, so I'm not really that deep into the subject, but still, there's no getting around discussing it with the author, though I really do think you can talk to the authors and, if necessary, make a licensing agreement, meaning you pay a fee so that you can then sell it in the desired quantity.

Hello pepsitralala,

I have to agree with you; I also don’t understand why so many fellow designers here are so eager to insist that you’re not allowed to sell the pieces you make. The fact is that someone who buys the finished hat (just as an example) would never buy a pattern for it, since they probably can’t knit or crochet themselves.

But maybe someone who has that stated on their listing will comment on it; I can’t really understand it either—the pieces made from my patterns may be sold by you in any quantity ;o)

In general, this cannot be prohibited anyway, unless it is a registered design. Then you would have to wait 25 years before you can sell the pieces. For a Community design (i.e., if something is new and distinctive): 3 years, and for a “normal” one that is only subject to protection against unfair competition (UWG), even just 1 year, each after the initial publication.

Otherwise, just ask the designer ...as already mentioned

You can read up on this at www.tischiro.net/ Misconceptions and Confusion of Copyright Law


Quote from the page:
~~4. Commercial ReproductionFinally, a few words about the famous sentence “commercial reproduction not permitted,” which appears under almost every pattern. What legal basis does this prohibition have?Patterns are created for the purpose of being worked from. Put in legal terms: by selling me the pattern (or making it available for free), the rights holder grants me the right to reproduce their design by knitting it. They may set conditions for this. However, only within the scope and during the period of validity of the aforementioned protective rights, namely either as a registered design (max. 25 years, but then it would have to be noted on the pattern that it is registered) or as a Community design (3 years) or under the UWG (6–12 months).This means that, at the latest three years after the initial publication, I may reproduce it commercially as much as I want, if it is not a registered design.
 The fact that you won’t get anywhere with that in the field of hand knitting anyway, because the amount of work and the achievable sale price are in no acceptable proportion, is another matter