Hello all!
This time I am not posting bad news but looking for advice from the plush makers in the community.
I have been making plushies for friends and family for a little while and feel I am getting confident enough to start trying to sell them. Now I am not going to be doing custom pieces, but just already made items.
Now my question is that I am planning on making some dragon plushes, but the design is inspired by the Beanie Babie dragons (rounded nose, brontosaurus body, felt toes, etc). I am making my own pattern but I didn't know if theses similarities would get me into trouble?
I wouldn't be using the same colors or selling them as Beanie Babies, but I just want to be sure.
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http://www.tabberone.com/Trademarks/CopyrightLaw/Patterns.shtml
I think since they'd just be inspired by and not exact copies of the Beanie Baby dragons, it would be totally fine.
(Sorry, something of a personal bugbear as every time someone wants to say it's okay to exactly copy/rip a plushie pattern the 'clothes aren't copyrighted so plushie must not be either' argument is used, even though they have nothing to do with each other)
That said, you should be fine making plushies in a similar style as long as you're not copying their exact pattern. As long as there's a certain amount of dissimilarity (i.e 605% difference) then it shouldn't be a problem.