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Use of the term 'Stitch 'n Bitch'
Sew Fast/Sew Easy Inc., a New York based company, uses aggressive legal tactics to bully small, social knitting chapters nationwide over the use of the term "Stitch and Bitch" or any variant of those three words. None of these small knitting chapters operates for profit.
A list of offensive acts are as follows:
- Disabling a large number (exact number pending) of online shops advertising various local knitting and crafting chapters by invoking CafePress's terms of service if the chapter made use of the term "Stitch and Bitch" or any variant of those three words. CafePress' terms of service enable CafePress to shut down these online shops on the basis of an allegation of trademark infringement that does not need to be proven in court.
- Causing Yahoo! Groups to shut down or threaten to shut down a large number of mailing lists (exact number pending) if they made use of the term "Stitch and Bitch" or any variant of those three words. These small social groups of knitters and crafters depend on these mailing lists to communicate, and Sew Fast/Sew Easy Inc.'s actions have caused harm to these groups' unity, lost them the ability to communicate with possible members, and/or caused Yahoo! to delete valuable membership information.
- Claiming they were the very first ever to coin the phrase "Stitch and Bitch" in 1997.
- Deleting all negative opinions, however civilly worded, from their guest book and online forum. Even more appalling, they have edited the very words posted by visitors directing interested parties to local knitting and crafting chapters. Any links provided with more information on these local knitting and crafting chapters have been changed without knowledge or permission of the poster to lead back to the company's own web site.
Sew Fast/Sew Easy Inc. has never once approached any of these knitting groups themselves to solve the issue amicably. Instead, they have relied on lawyers and third parties to force these social groups to remove the term "Stitch and Bitch" or any variant of those three words. These small circles do not operate for profit and use the term generically to describe a group of people that gather to knit, sew, craft, and socialize.
Sew Fast/Sew Easy Inc. does in fact own the rights to the service mark "Stitch & Bitch Cafe" as an online chat room pertaining to sewing. We believe they hold no trademark on the more generic term "Stitch and Bitch" or any variant of those three words, and we believe we have the right to use the phrase without harassment from this company.
What are the terms of this boycott?
The boycott will officially end once this network of knitting and crafting chapters are able to do the following without harassment and threats of legal action from Sew Fast/Sew Easy Inc:
- Knitting and/or crafting groups whose sole purpose is to socialize and not operate for profit will be able to use the term "Stitch and Bitch" or any variant of those three words on their web sites, mailing lists, email groups, and advertisements.
- Knitting and/or crafting groups whose sole purpose is to socialize and not operate for profit will be able to use the term "Stitch and Bitch" or any variant of those three words on merchandise and promotional materials. These groups will not receive an economic profit from these goods, promotional materials or activities, and any money gained from these materials will be used to cover the costs associated with their manufacture or given to charity.
- Sew Fast/Sew Easy Inc will publicly apologize for their hostile and aggressive legal tactics.