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"When life gives you hands, make handmade" is making the rounds!  When I received a Google Alert for the tee shirt pictured above, I have to admit I was pretty flattered and shocked.

Since I coined the phrase last fall, it's been featured on various blogs, used as someone's blog subtitle, painted with watercolor as part of a 30 Days of Creativity initiative, shown on the keynote stage for the 2011 Compostmodern Conference in San Francisco, pinned and repinned on Pinterest, tweeted, Facebooked and everything in between. I'd have to say most entertaining was when I was contacted by a woman in Melbourne, Australia who wanted to use the design for their city's annual art festival!

It's amazing to see the impact and domino effects created when we put our ideas out into the universe... on second thought, maybe I should look into getting this puppy copyrighted :)
 


Comments

Rainer Mueller
08/24/2011 7:08pm

It might be too late already to get this copyrighted. Think trademarks as well.

Take all of your designs, lay them out, photograph them, and then copyright that photograph. People can't use even a part of your copyrighted material without your permission.

Of course enforces a copyright takes money (and time) and in the end, it may not be worth it, especially if it's just another small outfit. But if it's one of the "big guys" it may be worth it, alas very, very time consuming - you may be in a retirement home before you collect anything....

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Brandy
08/24/2011 9:22pm

I always understood that if it's your intellectual property, it's your intellectual property, whether it's officially copyrighted or not.

I'd be sending some Cease & Desists and claiming that zeitgeist!

Bake it Pretty has some good advice for dealing with copycats, excerpted here: http://www.myaimistrue.com/2011/05/twitter-urban-outfitters-pr-disaster/

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09/08/2011 4:19pm

Once it's published, you have about 3 months to get a copyright for it. Afterwards, I'm not sure if you can get it copyrighted. Yes, you can claim "intellectual property" but a copyright is something that actually protects you. I've been researching this stuff myself. It's stressful! Here's some more info that I found on copyrighting: http://www.etsy.com/help/article/263. Also, it doesn't cost $45.00, as etsy says. I think it's up to $50.00 now. Regardless, I think you'll be fine. Everyone in Charlotte will have your back! haha

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