I'm rusty on trademark and copyright law, but in this country (US) you need to aggressively pursue your trademark or copyright or you can lose it.
This means someone else can take Kate Spain's designs and put it onto scrapbooking paper and sell it. Or someone in China can decide to put it onto T-Shirts and sell millions of them in the US. Even if the artist did the T-shirts first, trademark and copyright law is the only way she has to stop someone else from copying the T-shirts and competing with her.
Why should anyone do something creative, if they will then have to stand by and watch someone else take their work and make money.
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Who gets to make the money?
This means someone else can take Kate Spain's designs and put it onto scrapbooking paper and sell it. Or someone in China can decide to put it onto T-Shirts and sell millions of them in the US. Even if the artist did the T-shirts first, trademark and copyright law is the only way she has to stop someone else from copying the T-shirts and competing with her.
Why should anyone do something creative, if they will then have to stand by and watch someone else take their work and make money.
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by otherside.
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