The Craft Artist's Legal Guide: Protect Your Work, Save on Taxes, Maximize Profits

by Stim, Richard

• ISBN13: 9781413312126
• ISBN10: 1413312128
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-06-05
• Publisher: NOLO

Summary

Your work is your passion, but often it's not easy making your passion pay. The Craft Artist's Legal Guide is the crafter's bible when it comes to making a craft business work. It gives you the legal and practical information you need to: * price and sell material, online and off; * get a design patent; * choose the right studio and deal with leases; * find low cost and free ways of promoting the business online; * hire workers and sales reps; * complete and file required business forms; * protect copyright, patents and trade dress; * save on taxes and preserve income. The Craft Artist's Legal Guide also includes engaging excerpts from interview with over a dozen crafts artists about the business and legal issues every artist is likely to encounter.

Author Biography

Richard Stim is an attorney who has represented crafts and visual artists and is the author of several books, including Music Law and Running a Side Business. He has no crafts skills, but he likes to shop at etsy.com.

Table of Contents

Your Legal Companion	p. 1
Pricing and Selling	p. 3
The Pricing Dilemma: How Much Do You Charge?	p. 5
Selling Wholesale	p. 12
Selling Retail	p. 15
Selling at Crafts Shows	p. 22
Selling on Consignment	p. 24
Custom Orders	p. 39
Shipping and Delays	p. 44
Returns and Refunds	p. 44
Ten Tips for Collecting Past-Due Accounts	p. 45
Selling and Buying Outside the U.S	p. 53
Your Studio	p. 55
Working From Home	p. 57
Finding the Right Space at the Right Price	p. 60
Studio Safety	p. 69
Going Online	p. 73
Where Do You Start?	p. 75
Free Stuff	p. 76
Invoice Customers and Get Paid Online	p. 80
Battle of the Community Stores: Etsy vs. eBay	p. 81
Earn Money With Google Adsense	p. 83
The (Very) Basics of Driving Traffic to Your Crafts Site	p. 83
How to Build a Website in 24 Hours	p. 86
Basic Legal Rules When Going Online	p. 88
Hiring Workers and Sales Reps	p. 91
Employee vs. Independent Contractor-What's the Difference?	p. 93
Ten Tips When Hiring Family Members	p. 100
Statutory Employees	p. 103
Firing Workers	p. 105
Works Made for Hire	p. 106
When Workers Learn Your Crafts Secrets	p. 116
Hiring Sales Reps	p. 121
Business Forms & Legal Liability	p. 133
Personal Liability: What Is It?	p. 134
The Business Entity as Shield	p. 135
Sole Proprietorship	p. 136
Partnership	p. 138
LLC vs. Corporation-What's the Difference?	p. 148
The Cooperative	p. 152
Other Ways to Limit Liability	p. 156
The Need for Basic Insurance	p. 157
Assess and Reduce Your Risks	p. 166
Product Liability	p. 167
Protecting Appearances With Copyright	p. 169
How a Copyright Protects You	p. 172
What Type of Work Qualifies for Copyright	p. 173
Photographs of Your Crafts Work	p. 177
Do You Need to Register With the Copyright Office?	p. 178
Choosing Whether to Register Your Works in Groups	p. 179
Filing a Copyright Application	p. 180
Posting a Copyright Notice on Your Work	p. 197
Getting Permission to Use Someone Else's Work	p. 198
Fair Use: When It's "Fair" for You to Use Pieces of Others' Works	p. 201
The First Sale Doctrine: Your Right to Resell Works	p. 202
The Public Domain: Free Stuff	p. 202
Using Copyright Assignments	p. 204
What Rights Does the Customer Acquire When They Buy Your Work?	p. 211
Infringement of Copyright	p. 211
The Visual Artists Rights Act: Crafts Works and Fine Arts	p. 213
Personal/Model Releases	p. 215
Protecting Appearances With Design Patents and Trade Dress	p. 221
Comparing Design Patents and Copyright	p. 222
Design Patents: The Bottom Line	p. 226
How to Get a Design Patent	p. 227
What Qualifies for a Design Patent	p. 229
Preparing a Design Patent Application	p. 239
Are There Other Types of Protection?	p. 249
Trade Dress	p. 249
What to Do If Your Work Is Ripped Off	p. 251
Names and Trademarks	p. 255
Trademark Basics	p. 256
Collective Marks and Certification Marks	p. 264
Staying Out of Trouble	p. 266
Federal Registration	p. 271
Licensing	p. 279
Crafts Licensing Overview	p. 282
Merchandise License Agreement	p. 287
Licensing Worksheet	p. 324
Taxes	p. 329
Hobby vs. Business-What's the Difference?	p. 332
Paying Taxes	p. 334
Tax Deductions	p. 344
Lawyers, Contracts, and Lawsuits	p. 359
Hiring Lawyers for Routine Business	p. 361
Hiring Lawyers for Legal Disputes	p. 363
Finding the Right Lawyer	p. 364
Fees and Fee Agreements	p. 366
Evaluating Your Attorney's Services	p. 368
Using Contract Provisions to Avoid Legal Costs and Hassles	p. 370
Appendix
How to Use the CD-ROM	p. 375
Installing the Files Onto Your Computer	p. 376
Using the Word Processing Files to Create Documents	p. 377
Files on the CD-ROM	p. 380
Index
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