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Stitch THIS!

January 18th, 2006 | View Comments

I’m an avid knitter and regularly cruise the web for interesting knitting-related reading. I found Jenna Wilson through her Big Sack Sweater pattern in Stitch ‘N Bitch and the popularity of her fabulous Rogue sweater pattern and her contributions to Knitty. I currently have two half-sleeves done on Rogue (knit in the fabulous Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran in Hemlock) and fondly refer to it as my “elf sweater”. The Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings elves, not Santa’s elves, which suggests an entirely different aesthetic.

I think I was persuaded to keep up with her journal because it wasn’t your typical knitting blog. She writes often on copyright issues as they apply to crafters and I’ve been interested in copyright issues ever since I started offering linkware web graphics back in oh, 1998. I recently discovered that Jenna is in real life an actual intellectual property lawyer, albeit one based in Canada so what she says may or may not apply to US law.

Anyways, that was a long and winding way of introducing the fact that I’ve been glued to Jenna’s journal for updates to a bizarre production involving Stitch ‘N Bitch. If only I knew whether this was a tragedy or a farce.

In short, Debbie Stoller attempted to trademark Stitch ‘N Bitch, the title of her wildly popular series of knitting books, and was (temporarily?) blocked by a sewing company that shall not be named (hereafter “Voldemort”) that holds a registered trademark that contains a variation on the phrase.

For a proper treatment of the ongoing duel between Stoller and Voldemort, you really should read the prior history links contained in this post, as well as Jenna’s latest update on the affair. There is also a Metafilter post about the whole shebang.

The popular perception in the online knitting hangouts that I frequent is that Voldemort tried to cash in on Stoller’s success by forcing random knitting groups all over the US to license “Stitch ‘N Bitch” from them, and potentially by forcing Stoller to have to license the phrase for her books.

Their legal tactics have included sending cease & desist letters to CafePress and Yahoo Groups demanding they remove any items/groups containing the words “stitch” and “bitch”.

To say the least, this hasn’t gone over well with knitters and there is an unofficial boycott of Voldemort’s products in progress. I’m tempted to make my contribution to the fray with a set of “Stitch THIS, Bitch!” shirts on CafePress.

These are the things that get me excited. Heart attack-inducing end to the Steelers game? Eh. Prolonged trademark dispute over knitting-related terminology? Edge of my seat, yo.

Yvonne posted this on January 18th, 2006 @ 1:54am in Stitch & Bitch | Permalink to "Stitch THIS!"

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