Is there a place

[rjwolfe3]

Rob,

Just look at it this way: If it's a good idea for a pen, Barry has it copyrighted. If he missed it, Dawn has it copyrighted. So, just send all good ideas (after you have several hundred cast) to Dawn--we'll figure it out from there!!!

Thanks!!


(Yes, tongue is firmly in cheek and no offense is meant to Barry---if I offended Dawn, well....... she's used to it!!)

Ed I think I will take you up on the offer. Now I have a guinea pig for all future ideas.:devil: Since you didn't specify that the "several hundred" had to be the same idea, I will send you my first hundred various test blanks. Let me know how they turn out.:biggrin:

 

[Lawrence Witter]

Copyrights

Rob,

I really hate to start out saying, "I'm not a lawyer but", but I will anyway. I do have some experience in the subject of copyrights. You cannot use a copyrighted logo, emblem, etc but there is no reason you cannot cast a blank that is blue & white. Just stay away from those logos.

If you want, PM me with details about your ideas and I'll fill you in on some of my experiences.

Larry

 

[Smitty37]

Probasbly

So if I want to sell Cast blank X and I do a search here and find someone who made a Cast blank X but there is no copyright mentioned does that mean I am free and clear to sell it even if that person was selling the same blank idea?

It is highly unlikely, unless it is one of the bigger companies, that there is a copyright or trade mark. Something that a hobbiest came up with for casting in a pen blank is probably not trade marked, copyrighted or patented and it is neither illegal or immoral to copy it.

 

[Smitty37]

Public Domain

In addition, once something is in the public domain, you can't patent, copyright or trademark it. You must at least apply to do that before you release it to the public. So if someone shows something here, finds out there is a market, sells a few and then trys to stop someone else from selling the same thing they are probably SOL from a legal standpoint, they put it in the public domain and can't take it back.

I don't know if including a statement "All Rights Reserved" gives them any leaway or not. I do see that used fairly often.

Applying for a trademark kicks off a search to see if anyone else is already using it or if it is already in the public domain. You must identify how you are using the word and what your use is describing, and that will be the only use protected.

 

[MesquiteMan]

Just a little clarification on some of the things you say above, Smitty...

Trademarks DO NOT have to be registered to be claimed and Copyrights are automatic the instant the work is created. Registering either one just give you more legal protection.

 

[jaybird]

Ok now you have me thinking/wondering, there was talk about the how-to with decals and printing them out for pens, does all this meen you cant even put a label on a pen to sell,,,,, and what if there was a die-hard Chevy-Dodge-Ford fanatic and wanted something of that sorts put on their pen, or even a Football or baseball or even Nascar put un their pen,,,, dose all this meen no matter how die-hard they are and no matter how much they beg & plead for it you just have to say NO,

 

[OKLAHOMAN]

Lets see.....Don Ward is called the snake skin expert although he wasn't the first to make a snake skin blank but he did work on them until that are almost perfect, and has written tutorials on it, we all now have made them Don and I have worked together on occasion to help each other out. Curtis was the first as far as we all know that made a Prickly Pear Cactus pen and has shared the how to also and helps pay his shop expenses by selling them on line and here, I for one also make both Snake skin and Cactus blanks (Skye even if Curtis won't admit it mine are as good as his:wink but would never sell them as both of them sell blanks . Now if XXXX made blanks out of XXX and sold them here and I liked them enough to sell the finished product (pen, etc.) I would not hesitate to make them and use it to make the finished product but would not sell the blanks....Maybe I have mixed morals but that's how I feel on the subject.