Can you copyright 'Stitch n' Bitch'?
Apparently somebody already has. It seems that via Cafepress that Brenda Janish of the Chicago Stitch n’ Bitch group has been sent a ‘cease-and-desist’ letter which states that the phrase ‘stitch n’ bitch’ is being used in violation of a copyright held by a New York City sewing lesson company called Sew Fast Sew Easy.

Apparently they registered this before Debbie Stroller (of Stitch n’ Bitch fame) filed for it and are claiming that they have only been made “recently aware” of the existence of the books. Apparently the New York City crafting community – or at least this store – lives under a rock, as I thought that the first wildly famous book was published in 2003, roughly two years ago.

I stumbled on this information at Poise.cc, and her original post can be found here. She posted the e-mail she received from Brenda Janish:


I received this notice today from CafePress. Apparently "Sew Fast Sew Easy" has claimed ownership of "Stitch and Bitch" and has reported our Cafepress shop as an infringement of their trademark.

I spoke to the person mentioned in this email, and as expected, he deferred to the legal department. Which I will not approach without acquiring a lawyer of my own.

The sense I got from him is this is just the tip of the iceberg. They were "recently made aware" of the books Debbie Stoller published, and I don't know that they are taking action, but it sounds like they intend to eradicate all uses of the term "Stitch and Bitch" that aren't theirs. Which will include any other items being sold by groups in other cities, and perhaps our use of the term altogether (the stitchnbitch.org domain may be next).

So... since this is not a money-making venture for me, and I really can't afford to hire a lawyer to fight this (or protect any other groups out there using the name), I'm putting out this call for anyone on the list who happens to be an intellectual property lawyer, who is sympathetic to the cause, and is willing to do a little legwork gratis. I know it's a lot to ask, but this is ridiculous, and I'd like to nip it in the bud.

Please contact me directly if you are interested or know of someone who might be.
Thanks.
-Brenda

Dear Ms. Janish,

Thank you for using CafePress.com!

In accordance with our Intellectual Property Rights Policy, Gregory Garvin, Marketing Manager for Sew Fast/Sew Easy, Inc. and Stitch and Bitch Cafe, provided us with a notice stating that your use of the StitchnBitch infringes upon their intellectual property rights (copyright/trademark). As you know CafePress.com is not in a position to evaluate the merits of an infringement claim made against you by a third party. In order to best protect ourselves from risk, we must take all allegations of infringement seriously and take action in removing the content from our site.

Penalties for copyright infringement can potentially reach $150,000 per work infringed and penalties for trademark counterfeiting can potentially reach $1,000,000 per trademark for each type of goods sold. An intellectual property rights owner may also have the right to recover the attorneys' fees that they incur in bringing an action against a person that infringes upon their intellectual property rights. Accordingly, we have set the content that is alleged to infringe the rights of the third party to "pending status" which disables said content from being displayed in your shop or purchased by the public. You may review the content set to pending status by logging into your CafePress.com account and clicking on the "Media Basket" link. The content set to pending status will be highlighted red.

If you believe that you hold the rights to the content alleged to infringe the rights of the third party, we encourage you to contact the alleged rights holder directly for a resolution to this matter. Below please find the contact information for the party alleging infringement.

Sew Fast/Sew Easy, Inc.
237 West 35th Street, Suite 603
New York, NY 10001
(T) 212-268-4321 (F) 212-268-4329 www.sewfastseweasy.com.

For additional information and FAQ's on Intellectual Property, please visit our Intellectual Property (Copyright/Trademark) Guidelines (this includes information on the Right of Publicity), Intellectual Property (Music & Electronic Media) Guidelines and Intellectual Property (Publishing) Guidelines.

We apologize for any inconvenience that our actions may cause you.
Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

Sincerely,
Lindsay Estes
Content Usage Associate


I’m no lawyer, but this seems ridiculous. I know I’ve heard of stories about how someone’s mother, grandmother or great-grandmother had Stitch n’ Bitch groups back in the day. A comment on Metafilter talks about someone’s grandmother having a 1940 college yearbook with a Stitch n’ Bitch club. Even if Sew Fast, Sew Easy holds the legal copyright, I think they’re foolish to enforce it. The term is commonly used in the knitting community and I believe that the negative backlash will be far more damaging than what pursuing the copyright would gain them.

This isn’t a knitting help request, but I thought that this community would be interested if this topic hadn’t already been discussed. If it’s deleted, no problem.