Licensed Fabrics

Almost any NBA, NFL, and Nascar fabrics can be special ordered for your unique print scrub tops. It takes about one week for special ordered fabrics to arrive. E-mail us for availability on licensed fabrics. Don't forget we can even make your NBA, NFL and Nascar print scrub tops in solid colors using embroidered patches for the chest pocket.

A fabric company gives up control over the use of their fabric when they release it into commerce.

The print on the fabric might be copyrighted, but the actual fabric itself does not have a copyright on it. The fabric may have images of registered trademarks, for instance, the logo of the Chicago Cubs, or San Francisco 49ers, etc.

Copyright law applies to the use of licensed fabric in the application of the first sale doctrine. Bear in mind, the term "licensed fabric" legally only refers to the fact the manufacturer of the fabric has a license to use the images on the fabric. Therefore, it does not in any way mean that the fabric is "licensed" to the purchaser. Products that are "licensed" require that an agreement be had between the owner and the purchaser. Fabric is not "licensed"; fabric is sold.

The question is: can someone buy licensed fabric to make and sell printed scrub tops, for instance? Yes. Will the owners of the trademarked and copyrighted images interfere with the sales of these items? They may try.

But how can they interfere with your sales, if the law says that you CAN do this? Well, they interfere just because they can. You see, the great majority of sellers will not fight back by taking them to court and the fabric companies know that. They employ bottom fed lawyers......a bottom feeder.......a lawyer of lowest status or rank, like a fish, that feeds off the bottom, one who seeks quick profit from the misfortune of others.

When making and selling printed scrub tops from licensed fabrics, a disclaimer should be used as well as careful wording of the title of the product.

Sellers should always use a disclaimer when it's appropriate, and pay attention to the wording.

Product titles are important when selling an item which has been crafted from licensed material. For example, let's say we are selling a Chicago Bears scrub top made from licensed Chicago Bears fabric. Our product title should read something like this:

Scrub Top made from Chicago Cubs Fabric and NOT.................... Chicago Cubs Scrub Top. It's like the difference between "light red" and a "red light".

There should always be a disclaimer used in the body of the hand crafted product description such as:

This is not a licensed (Chicago Cubs) scrub top.
It is however, hand-crafted from licensed (Chicago Cubs) fabric.
We are not affiliated with or sponsored by (Chicago Cubs).

Every where you look, there is controversy over the question of whether items made from licensed fabric can be sold or not. When and if fabric manufacturers find out that you have been selling items that you hand crafted from licensed fabric, they WILL send you out a legal warning.

So how can we protect ourselves?
We have to make very clear, that the scrub top was made using licensed fabric but that we are not affiliated with the trademark holder in any way.

Common perception is not on our side, but the law is, so in order to continue to make scrub tops from licensed fabric, we have to be willing to fight to prove that we have that right, if we were ever to receive one of those cease and desist letters.

Licensed Fabric:
Fabric is sold, it's not licensed to the person who buys it. The only reason fabric is licensed in the first place is because the fabric is holding the trademarked images. The trademark holder sells the fabric manufacturer a license in order for them to be able to print the fabric.

What the manufacturers have to say:
There is a warning printed on the selvage edge of the licensed fabric -or on most licensed fabric, stating that the fabric is intended for home use only and that items such as scrub tops made from the fabric cannot be sold.

The fabric manufacturers and trademark holders have argued that this warning constitutes an agreement with the person who purchased the licensed fabric, and that selling items made from this fabric is illegal. But then you have trademark holders arguing that items made from such fabric constitutes a "derivative work", which means a secondary piece of work from the original piece.

When trademark holders send out cease and desist letters, it's intimidating to most crafters, and they immediately stop selling, when actually they should try to fight it.

For more information, please visit www.tabberone.com .