Why buying the fabric isn’t enough
When you buy licensed fabric you own that piece of cloth. You don’t get permission to make and sell products featuring the character printed on it. Characters, logos and crests are registered trade marks, usually registered for exactly the kinds of things people make: bags, clothes, accessories. Turning the fabric into a bag creates a new product carrying that trade mark, and the brand never agreed to put that product on sale. Selling it can be an offence, not just a rule you’ve broken.
You can sell things made from
- plain, patterned or abstract fabrics and materials with no brand, character or crest on them
- your own designs, drawings, photographs and artwork
- materials you have a written commercial licence for, if you can show us that licence when we ask
You can’t sell
- anything showing a brand, logo, character, crest, mascot, badge or slogan belonging to someone else
- anything made from branded fabric, buttons, labels, trims or packaging
- anything made by cutting up or reworking branded clothing, bags or accessories
- anything copying another product’s design or distinctive shape
- anything described as inspired by, in the style of, a dupe of, or a tribute to a brand, band, team, film, game or person
- unofficial merchandise of any kind
This applies to your words as well as your item
A plain scrunchie is fine. The same scrunchie listed as “perfect for Taylor Swift fans” is not: using someone’s name to sell your product is the same problem.
A note on commercial-use fabric
Some fabrics are sold with a licence allowing commercial use. That licence comes from the fabric maker, and it usually doesn’t include permission to use a character or brand printed on the fabric, because the fabric maker doesn’t own those rights either. A commercial-use licence lets you sell items made from that fabric’s own design. It does not let you sell items showing someone else’s character.
If a brand contacts us about your listing
We’ll take it down and tell you. See Reporting an IP problem.