Crochet Pattern Copyright: The Real Deal with Gordon Firemark

Can you copyright a crochet pattern? Is it cool if you rewrite someone else’s pattern and distribute it to your friends? And as a designer, how can you ensure that your hard work is protected from infringement? In this episode, we’re going to be talking about all of those things and more with our guest, Gordon Firemark. So if you want to learn more about crochet pattern copyright, you’ve come to the right place!

Meet Gordon Firemark

Gordon Firemark is a lawyer who works with creatives, artists, entrepreneurs, and other business owners to help them achieve their dream of getting their message out and making a meaningful impact with their craft. He’s also known as The Podcast Lawyer. He has two podcasts, Entertainment Law Update and More. Better. Faster. He’s also the author of The Podcast, Blog, and New Media Producer’s Legal Survival Guide.

He has an undergraduate degree in radio, television, and film and experience in live theater production. In addition to his busy law practice, he teaches entertainment law at Columbia College Hollywood, intellectual property and media law at Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, and contract law at Pepperdine Law University. He’s got his hands in a lot of pots. So I was so happy that he was willing to take some time out of his day to join us.

What part of crochet patterns is protected under copyright?

Pam: We’re going to be using this term, “crochet pattern.” That term has its own set of complexities because a crochet pattern entails the idea behind the design, it entails the process of creating design, and then it also has the written words describing how to do the design. Can you help us understand the specific parts of a crochet pattern that are protected by copyright law?

Gordon: Absolutely. And and in fact, thank you, because that was my first question when we started preparing to do this episode was, “What do you mean by a crochet pattern? Can you send me an example?” And when you did, it was like, “Aha!” The light bulbs went on and all the synapses started firing at the same time. So let’s talk a little bit about the basics of copyright, first of all.

What copyright is, is this bundle of rights that give the the owner—the author of the work, which we’ll get into in a second—exclusive rights to copy, and distribute, and perform, and display, and make derivative works based on that original work. So, in order to be entitled to copyright protection, the work needs to be an original work of authorship, of expression of ideas. As you mentioned, the ideas and facts are not entitled to copyright protection.

As a society, don’t want to take words out of the lexicon. We don’t want to take ideas off the table. And obviously facts, we want to be able to tell the truth without having to navigate around these kinds of things. But the specific, original way that you as an author or I as an author express the things that we are doing, that’s what’s entitled to protection.

What is an “expression of ideas?”

So the design of the thing that you’re—I mean if it’s a square potholder, it’s not really an original design. But the wine cozy design that you sent me, I think that does have some copyrightable elements. I’m not sure that the cylinder that surrounds a bottle of wine is. But the shawl collar or the bow collar, those kinds of things, I would think that is something that can be protected, inherently, in the design because that’s original.

Also, the specific layout, obviously, of the pages that you write the design out and you create the pattern, that is something that’s protectable. The photographs that you use to illustrate are certainly independently copyrightable works. And so together, they are. And then prose or poetry that you use to describe the the the work, and your process and so on, that can be entitled to protection.

What is not protected?

But—and this is the important part—the the actual mechanics of doing, of making the thing, is not something that can necessarily be protected. There’s a little bit of an “except” in there, but I’ll come to that in a minute. But that’s like the recipe. The recipe for chicken noodle soup is not something that we can protect. We want other people to be able to make it and and make their variations and so on.

That’s why you see, and a lot of people get frustrated with, “Just give me the recipe. I don’t need six pages of explanation about how much your family loves this thing. Just give me the recipe.” Same thing going on here. Recipes are not protected under copyright law because they are essentially facts. It’s a formula—a mechanical process, I guess you could call it.

Process versus Expression in Crochet Pattern Copyright

If you invented some kind of a new way of doing the stitches, maybe that would be something that might be entitled to patent protection or something. But no, that recipe for making whatever the item is is probably not entitled to protection—again, except insofar as it identifies the the specific number of of times around to make that shawl collar, for example, or something.

Anybody who copies that exact number and set of of instructions, now they are essentially making a derivative of original. But no, there’s nothing wrong with saying, “Okay. Now do a row of this. Now do a row of that. Use this stitch, use that … That kind of thing.”

So, what we will see is 10 different possible patterns for “sweater for baby,” with fundamentally the same—for size micro, we’ll do this many stitches to get a thing that’s however long around, or whatever it is supposed to be. As you can tell, I don’t do any crochet or sewing work.

So with a very narrow exception, that recipe—that formula or instruction set for the specific stitches and the number of them—is not a protectable component.

Derivative Works and Crochet Pattern Copyright

Pam: So when you say “derivative,” what does what does that mean?

Gordon: A derivative work is any work that is based upon or incorporates the original. I’m going to use the wine cozy as my example because it’s the one in front of me. If I was making a whole picnic basket liner and I added in the wine cozy—maybe it’s stitched into a corner or maybe not—that would be a derivative work because it incorporates your wine cozy design.

What about rewriting someone else’s pattern?

Pam: We had chatted just before this about instances where someone might take someone else’s pattern and rewrite it in their own words to share with people. What are the legal implications of that? Is that covered? Is it protected? What do we know about this?

Gordon: To the extent that it’s restating “the recipe,” for lack of a better term, that’s okay. To the extent that it copies the same—obviously, uses the same photographs to illustrate, then that’s infringing on all those photographs. If the overall sequence of everything is exactly the same, and that all that descriptive prose or poetry that I was referring to before is the same or similar, then it’s not.

But if it’s been essentially just translated … Well, translating into a new language is technically an infringement. But rewording, paraphrasing, changing up the the order and structure, and those kinds of things, it might be okay. This is one of those areas where I would refer to the copyright in the pattern as sort of a “thin copyright,” I would guess. So to the extent that it doesn’t copy the same photographs, and it doesn’t copy the same layout and overall expression, then I think it’s probably not infringing, and therefore sort of okay.

Morally, it’s not okay. And even if you have the best intentions, I would say the right approach is get permission from the original creator so that there’s no recriminations later on, as I understand is what’s going on here.

Beyond Crochet Pattern Copyright: Terms of Use

But there’s more to this than just copyright. It’s important that we remember that when you go onto a website, and you click on that thing, and it says, “Give me your email address and check this box,” you’re making a contract with the creator of the website. And that contract can specify, to a certain extent, what you can and can’t do with the thing that you’re getting.

I’m not entirely sure we could totally restrict somebody’s right to do what copyright law already allows. But a contract saying, “I won’t do that,” I think is valid and binding.

The real trouble is, as the as the creator of the original, it’s really hard to point to how much money … If you’re selling the the thing, then yes, you can point to that. But how much money have you really lost because someone made their own version of your thing?

How Copyright Applies to Free Resources

I actually am going through this right now in my own world. Well, I’m not going through it. It’s just a a fact. But one of the things that I do to get people onto my mailing list is I offer a free podcast guest release, where the guest is giving consent to be recorded, and that it’d be broadcast, and I’m not getting paid, and you own the content and all those kinds of things. And I make it available for free. All you do is give me an email address and download it.

Well, in one of the Facebook groups for podcasters, sure enough, just last night, some guy posted the full text of a guest release that is remarkably similar to mine, in the sense that it follows the same structure and most of the same wording. He actually left out some important language, and that’s what I’ve been pointing out, “Hey, there’s something missing here, dude. Maybe you want to use the one drafted by the lawyer.”

But honestly, could I do anything about it legally? Probably not because it’s not a recipe, but it’s a set of standard language expectations and things. So this is definitely a tricky area. And if I put in my terms of use, “Thou shalt not copy,” I think that would have some force and effect. But you’re not going to stop the person who’s determined to make a copy

Protecting Your Crochet Pattern Photos

You know, what I would suggest for folks that are making these kinds of patterns is watermark all your images. Put a watermark there that just shows where this image originated. And put it somewhere where it’s not easy to crop out of the frame, so that if anybody does copy those things, the the viewers are going to know, “Oh, yeah. That came from so and so. I think that’s an important way of protecting yourself.

How Fair Use Applies to Crochet Pattern Copyright

Pam: Can you explain the fair use doctrine. What does that mean? And how might it play into some of this type of issue with crochet patterns?

Gordon: That’s a great question. So here in the US, we have the 1st Amendment, Freedom of Speech, which is a constitutional provision that basically says government can’t make laws that infringe or impair a person’s rights of free speech and expression. The copyright is also covered in the constitution. There’s actually a clause that says Congress may make a law giving authors and inventors exclusive rights. So so we have these two conflicting constitutional provisions.

In the early part of 20th century, the courts started having to grapple with this because people would say, “Well, I want to use that expression. I want to say those words,” or whatever, “and that’s infringing my right of free speech to give someone a copyright over that.”

So they developed this four-part balancing test—four factors that you have to consider. They are the purpose and character of the allegedly infringing work, the nature of the original work (what kind of thing is it?), the amount and substantiality of what’s taken, and the fourth factor is the impact on the market or value for the original. And there’s no rule of thumb. We have to do this analysis every instance of potential infringement.

How Fair Use Applies to Copying Crochet Patterns

To copy the pattern, again, if they’re copying a photo, they’re probably copying most, if not all, of the photo. So that’s a full infringement of that one copyrighted work. If they’re copying the wording of the of a paragraph of a 10-paragraph thing, maybe the amount and substantiality isn’t enough to rise to the level of infringement. That’s what we would call a fair use.

But the nature and the purpose and character of the infringing is really the same as the underlying original. So those factors are going to weigh in favor of the original, the copyright side. And then that market impact. If it’s a freebie, maybe it doesn’t have a very significant market impact, although I think we could point to the value of a name on a mailing list or

Pam: Or ad revenue.

Gordon: Or ad revenue, or also the value of the right to say no to somebody making a copy, or derivative, or something like that. It is part and parcel of exclusive rights that the owner can say no and doesn’t have to let you make a copy.

How to Register Your Crochet Pattern Copyright

Pam: What would you recommend to a designer—what steps to take after they create their thing? We know the written words, they come with automatic copyright protections. But there are steps you can take to get more solid, maybe not so ethereal, protections. What would that be?

Gordon: So you hit on something I should have mentioned earlier, and that is that copyright protection does occur automatically from the moment the work is fixed in a tangible form. So you write down that pattern, you make those photographs, you own it right then.

Here in the US, there’s a registration mechanism where you can file a copy of the work and an application form with the United States Copyright Office, which is actually part of the Library of Congress. So your work then becomes a part of the catalog of the Library of Congress. And you pay a fee. It’s, I think, $65 per copyright. You wait a while for the government to churn its thing slowly, as they do, and then you have a certificate that shows that you own the copyright.

What protections do you receive when you register a copyright?

Now that certificate, a, it establishes when the work was first registered. But also, you need that registration in place if you’re going to sue somebody for copyright infringement. I’m just going to put this out there. I don’t think suing somebody who copies your crochet pattern is likely to happen very much. Let’s face it. Filing a copyright infringement lawsuit is starting an odyssey that can easily get into the six, maybe seven figures.

There is a small claims court for copyright. I call it a small claims. It’s called the Copyright Claims Board and they handle smaller matters, sort of informally, through emails and through the the mail. That might be a thing. But so far, we haven’t seen anything other than mostly photos and music, are what we see having that.

But the registration is useful because if you have registered prior to the infringement, and within three months of first publishing the work, you can get your attorney’s fees paid, and you can get statutory damages, which starts out at $750 per infringement and rises all the way up to the level of … If it’s a willful infringement and really egregious, the court could award you as much as a $150,000 for an infringement.

Easy, Cost-Effective Ways of Protecting Your Rights

So that may be where some teeth exist here if you’re gonna register. But if you’re putting out a new crochet pattern every month or more often, that $65 per starts to add up and you don’t know which ones are going to get infringed.

Pam: So it’s sort of a calculated risk, where you decide if you have multiple patterns that do go viral, that tend to be copied, maybe it’s wise. And you know. If you have it set up in such a way that you’re like, “I know I’m going to make my $65 back on the first day of sales, then I’m cool. I’ll just build that into my business model and not worry about it.” But if you’re a new designer, and you’re just struggling to make a couple sales, and they’re $5 apiece, then may maybe wait and and see how things go.

Gordon: Yeah. I would suggest, in addition to the registration, that some of the easy things to do is, first off, put the copyright notice in the footer or somewhere on the pattern itself.

But also, on the website where you’re offering either the freebie or the for sale, I would first put the terms, including, “You’re not going to copy, you’re not going to distribute this pattern without my consent,” those kinds of things, and a checkbox that says, “I understand these terms,” so that there can be no … It’s not just, “Oh, well, it’s understood that this is going to happen.” It’s like, “I actually saw it and said yes.” I think that’s important.

Can you sell crochet items from someone else’s pattern?

Now one other little wrinkle. In preparing for today, I did a little digging into the crochet copyright community. And there’s another issue that I’ve seen, is that people get upset when their pattern is used to make something that’s then sold on Etsy or on some other marketplace. People take the view that, “Well, I’m distributing this pattern so you can make one for your personal use.”

The truth of it is, what somebody does with that pattern once it leaves your hands and into theirs, it’s their pattern now. It doesn’t mean they can make copies of it, but can they make multiples from that pattern? I’m not entirely sure there’s any way to prevent or restrict that. And once I have an item in my hand, whether it’s the pattern itself or … The case came up in the world of books, of course, that once the book belongs to me, if I want to sell it to somebody else, I can do that. It’s called the first sale doctrine.

And so I think there’s a similar analog to, “Okay, I’ve made this thing from your pattern. I’m going to sell 10 of them on my online store.” I don’t think that there’s any rule that we can cite that would say you can’t do that, again, unless it’s in those terms on the website that you check the box. I do think it’s appropriate to give credit where credit is due for the pattern, and maybe you can insist on that in those terms as well.

Can you protect how your crochet pattern is used?

Pam: Yeah. It’s one of those things that still comes back to, it’s kind of like they can ask you to please don’t sell the the finished product. But there’s no legal thing that says they can’t sell their finished product, in the US. I know in the UK—

Gordon: If there’s a contract that says you’re not going to sell it, then selling it is a breach of that contract. Now, what are you going to do about it in terms of courts? Again, is it really worth going to court over? But you can certainly recognize that somebody’s breaching these contracts and then block them from downloading more of your patterns, those kinds of things, that make it harder for them.

I’m never a big fan of publicly shaming people because you can get into getting sued back for false information, or defamation, or invasions of privacy and things like that. But yeah, there’s a lot that can be done.

What to Do When Your Crochet Pattern Copyright is Being Infringed Upon

Pam: What advice would you give someone that, they see someone doing something that they don’t like with their design? What suggestions would you give to them? Sometimes what we see is reaching out and sending a cease and desist, or request to take down, or something like that, and then that sort of snowballs. As soon as someone takes that online, it snowballs into an ally gathering, dog piling, bullying sort of online situation. So how can we prevent that? Or what are the best steps to take to when you think that someone might be infringing on your stuff?

Gordon: It’s really hard in this day and age because of what you’re saying. It snowballs very quickly. So my preferred approach—and I work with my clients who have these infringement issues of one sort or another—is I always encourage them to start with the the notion that you catch more flies with honey.

So you start out nice and polite and you say, “Listen, I’m sure you didn’t realize. I’m sure you didn’t mean to do anything wrong or might even say anything wrong, but I’m sure you didn’t mean to cross a line. But these are the rules that I’ve laid out for when people download my thing. And it was clear because you checked the box. So would you please take that down, or would you please not do this again?” Something like that.

“I’m sure you understand this is how I attract people to getting on my mailing list so I can make other offers and and provide value to the community.” Make your case a little bit that way, but in kind, understanding, polite language.

When The Nice Approach Doesn’t Work

If they say, “Ah, screw you. I’m not going to listen,” maybe escalating and and the formal cease and desist. And it’s just a letter, really, just saying, “Hey. If you don’t stop, I’m going to do something.” And you have to decide what’s the real threat in there and are you willing to go the distance if they don’t comply with your demand?

The other thing about sending that cease and desist … Send that polite letter. It’s less likely to be a problem when they post it on their website for the whole world to see, “Hey, look at this letter I got.” But when it’s a nasty gram, as we refer to cease and desist letters, and they post it, now that starts to make you look like a bad guy. So that’s the kind of, I’ll call it, public relations play that you need to think about, is coming across the right way.

But you do have to stand up for your rights. Otherwise, sometimes you end up losing them altogether. And so, in that polite letter, it’s also, “I’m sure you understand I have to look out for my rights here. So I’m asking, let’s make a make a thing,” or, “Please make sure I get attribution.” That’s the other way to soften the blow that you feel.

Using Technology to Deal with Infringement

But if they don’t comply with the cease and desist letter, then maybe, like I said, I would use technology tools to ban them from downloading other patterns from you and things like that. Maybe even publicly say, “I’ve had a problem with people doing this. So if you do that, I’m gonna ban you from the downloads.” You have to have a webmaster who knows how to do that.

Pam: You have to figure out IP addresses and things like that, probably.

Gordon: Yeah, which isn’t really that hard, but it’s something I think most creative people aren’t really that interested in chasing down. Or call a lawyer and and have a conversation about whether it’s something worth doing. But now you’re spending hundreds or thousands of dollars to go after that that lost email address, or lost $25, or whatever it is. So it becomes just a straight up business judgment.

The Implications of Not Protecting Your Crochet Pattern Copyright

Pam: Can we talk a little bit more about what you mentioned of like, we need to protect our rights—the rights that we do have. There are implications to not asserting those rights or not protecting those rights. Can you talk about that just a little bit?

Gordon: It’s less of an issue in the copyright world where we put a copyright notice on the work and and we trust that anybody that gets it is going see that notice and understand the implications. But there are two principles in the law. They’re both equitable principles. Equity and law used to be separate systems of of justice.

The equitable principle called laches basically stands for this idea that one who sits on one’s rights relinquishes them after a while. So you can’t just let everything happen, and let everything slide all the time, and then randomly decide, “Well, it’s Tuesday, so I’m going to go after that guy.”

The analog of that, or similar principle, the more modern terminology for that principle, is called equitable estoppel. Estoppel means that one is prevented or stopped from taking certain kinds of action, or succeeding with certain kinds of action. Ultimately, equity comes down to is it fair or not. So, “Everybody else is doing it, and I did it, and they came after me. Your honor, it’s been going on for 10 years. Equitable estoppel, please. They shouldn’t be able to come after me. I’m being singled out.” Those kinds of things. It doesn’t always work but that is a defense in these in these scenarios.

That’s why I say you do have to police your your ownership of things. It’s like putting a fence around your property so that you don’t make it easy for people to steal.

Community Questions

Using Copyrighted or Trademarked Characters or Designs in Crochet Patterns

I’ve seen patterns for things like the Grinch and Disney items. How does this apply?

Gordon: This applies in the way that my advice is going to be, “Don’t do that.” The Grinch is a character that is owned. I don’t know if that’s a Disney. I think no, that’s doctor Seuss originally, right? So Theodore Geisel Enterprises.

So a design like that, it’s not just a copyright. It’s probably also a trademark for the the Grinch design. You make a pattern that incorporates that, you are infringing that design, absolutely. And you can expect to hear from them pretty quickly if you’re doing … Again, you’re making a sweater for one person, not a big deal. You’re you’re not likely to hear about it. But if you distribute the pattern or if you make 100 of them, now you got an issue.

Sports Teams and Trademark Infringement

This is also a thing with things like college letters and logos and things like that. There have been cases where even just the O from the Ohio State design, if it’s that particular shaped O—which there’s a font style called University font or athletic font or something. But the point is, if you do an O, well, guess what? The Ohio State University owns a trademark for the letter O in that context. So yeah, you have to be cautious and careful about that too.

Pam: I’ve heard of instances of NFL teams coming after people for using particular color patterns that are their team’s color patterns. So you just have to be careful. If you think, “Maybe I’m infringing,” then just let it go. Do something else.

Copyright and Aesthetic Elements

Gordon: Yeah. It is important to remember that the design of a garment is not something that is protected—the shape of the pattern of making the garment. So again, that’s sort of the “recipe” in a crochet context for this many rows of this many stitches and that kind of thing.

However, the aesthetic components of a design … So if you were to make a knockoff version of of a sweater that has a particular zigzag check pattern or something like that, and let’s say Burberry makes that in the commercial world, they might have a claim there because now you—again, the color scheme—that’s aesthetically original, even though it’s part of the pattern of the garment. There’s a case involving cheerleader uniforms, where the shape of the a-line little sweater dress was not protected but the chevrons on the front were. So something else to keep in mind as you make patterns.

Are crochet design sketches copyrighted?

“I always draw/sketch out my plushie toys that I base my patterns on.” So she creates a sketch and then she does the design. Would that be protected under copyright—so her sketches that are like pre-designed sketches.

Gordon: Yes. Your sketch would be protected insofar as anybody who copies the sketch would be infringing. And I guess, to an extent, then your finished product of the crochet would be a derivative work of your sketch. But yeah, I don’t think it goes beyond somebody just reproducing your sketch. So that, they would have to do their own.

Pam: So the sketch itself is, but the idea is not?

Gordon: The idea of a of a dog, a beagle, lying on top of a dog house, takes it from idea to particular expression. But theoretically, you could draw a different beagle or a different breed of dog lying on top of a dog house. I don’t know whether Charles Schultz Enterprises would care about that or not. I think they might have a case. If you took Goofy or Pluto and put him on the top of a dog house—

Pam: Now you’re in double trouble, maybe.

Parody of Copyrighted Designs

Gordon: Well, you’re taking on a couple of big entities. Yeah. It’d be an interesting gag, actually. That’s another point we should mention real quick. Parody is a part of the fair use defense in copyright. So if what you’re doing is making fun of that original design, some social commentary kind of a thing and really using it as a poking fun, that might be considered fair use and therefore not infringement. I don’t see that coming up too often, at least not in the crochet pattern. But it may be in the design that’s embodied in the pattern. You could see something like that.

We know that Nike doesn’t make crocheted sweaters with swooshes on them, especially an ugly Christmas sweater or something like that. So, theoretically, you could put a swoosh in. I better not say that out loud but you know what I mean.

Pam: No. Don’t do that.

Gordon: Don’t use the swoosh. Too big of a brand.

Creating Designs from Photos

This particular person says, “I like to take a photo and design items.” I think you need to specify. Is this your own photo or someone else’s photo? And then asking is that infringing. So I’m guessing if it’s someone else’s photo and you recreate it as a blanket, replicating that photo of someone else’s photo, I would assume that is infringement.

Gordon: Yes. And another possible interpretation of this—and maybe the maybe the person who posed this will clarify. But if it’s taking a photo of something out in the world, like a sculpture, or a toy in a store, or something like that, the photo itself is also infringing on the design embodied in that thing that you’re ultimately reproducing.

So it’s a little bit of a tricky—not tricky. It’s a good idea not to do that. Use the photo for reference, sure. But try to make it your own. Originality is really the the way to go. Obviously, we have patterns so we can reproduce things. But if you’re making patterns, don’t copy other people’s designs to do it.

The Importance of Originality

Pam: And that’s basically what it comes down to. We call ourselves creatives. Let’s be creative.

Gordon: Yeah. There’s more value in that anyway.

Pam: Everybody can make a hat. But make your own. Create your own. Format the stitches you want. Do your own math. Use your color combinations the way you want to and make it your own. Then you don’t have to worry about things like this. Take the stress off yourself.

Gordon: Yeah. Unfortunately, the world is full of people who aren’t applying their creativity, and they’re just … Well, their creativity is figuring out how to knock something off rather than make something original. We all see those products on Amazon and on Etsy and things like that. I know we often do kind of recognize, “Oh, that’s not the actual original.”

Pam: Right. Yeah. I think it does come down to also your reputation of if you’re … I go to certain people’s Etsy shops and I see their patterns. I see their designs, and I’m like, “Oh, I know who designed that originally. I know who designed that originally. I know who designed that originally. I know who designed that originally.” And they’re basically building a business out of taking other people’s designs, rewriting the pattern themselves, and then sharing it. And it’s like, “I don’t see your voice anywhere in this.” These are all other people’s voices.

Using the DMCA to Protect Your Online Listings

Gordon: Yeah. Since we’re talking about Etsy, there’s one other thing I should just mention. If you have original designs and patterns that you’ve created, that you know people are copying and you can identify that it’s Etsy or eBay or wherever, The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the DMCA, does give you the right to issue a notice to the the hosting site to take down that work. You have to identify your copyrighted work and where it is.

And then, in order to prevent themselves from being sued for contributory copyright infringement, they will have a policy in place that requires that they take it down quickly. Then the other party gets a chance to object and explain why it should be put back up. And fair use may be one of those defenses, or there is no real copyright, or that isn’t copyrightable. There’s lots of defenses. It gets put back up, and then it’s left to the 2 parties to duke it out in court or whatever. But oftentimes, it just isn’t worth the fight for the the infringer to come back and and, defend themselves. It depends on the work, of course. But that’s another remedy that’s available to copyright owners.

How to Consult with Gordon on Crochet Pattern Copyright

Pam: Beth says, “I really need some advice about all of this. I really need a consultation. Do you do consultation work? Are you taking on new clients?” And, I do have all of your links in the description. They’ll be in the show notes as well for people to get a hold of you. But what would that look like?

Gordon: I do do consultations and I am taking on new clients. I don’t do very much in the world of fashion and crafting like this. Most of my work is with creators in film, television, live theater, podcast. I do a lot of work with podcast creators and things like that.

But if you’ve got questions, I’m happy to have a conversation and see if we can figure out where you ought to go and what needs to be done. And if it’s not a good fit for me, then maybe I know somebody I can refer you to. I know there’s a handful of lawyers out there that are also crochet enthusiasts who may be a good choice as well.

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