Comments on: She limps along

By: j.

j. — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 14:59:25 +0000

Well, Deb Stoller’s precise plans for her STITCH ‘N BITCH brand would be known to her alone, really. Her trademark applications specify specific goods and services for her trademark, which does not purport to cover groups or gatherings. While we do know that she herself has asked at least one group to stop selling accessories with a specific variant of “stitch” and “bitch”, to my knowledge she has never objected to any individual non-commercial group going by a stitch-and-bitch type name — only the sale of certain items.

But she is not the one that has been shutting down online groups; that’s SFSE.

But trademarks can include common phrases: see here.

By: hege

hege — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 23:08:09 +0000

I read that one of the arguments used by Debbie Stoller’s for why SFSE should not get this trademark was that the expression Stitch ‘n Bitch was in use by sewing and knitting clubs for decades. So then why is she attempting to trademark it herself? It seems that that argument could be used against her as well. I had a Stitch and Bitch group, long before any of this (1991), and I find it pretty irritating that a common phrase like that should be trademarked. Anybody should be able to name their group SnB and should be able to have a website for it. Is there a guideline for deciding what is “common usage”?

Thanks for all your interesting information.

By: Wannietta

Wannietta — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 23:52:27 +0000

Awwww shucks ma’am, t’weren’t nothin’ much. You were swell too and the way you stared down them thar publishers fer a deadline extension – that were worth an extry log on the fire t’hear the legend told.

Seriously – it was fun (I’m a bit – okay a lot – sadistic like that) and I’m really excited that it’s going to be available in such a great size range. The maths that you’re going to have to do to bring this to the people – now that’s heroic! (Is the book ready yet? Huh? What ’bout now?)

By: Lynne E.

Lynne E. — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 02:46:52 +0000

I’m dying to see Ninja, as I love your complicated cable designs! It’s too bad that the STITCH ‘N BITCH trademark controversy exists, but your pragmatic comments always make for interesting reading.