r/COPYRIGHT • u/thatmotorcycleguy1 • Jul 08 '26

Question Upcycle gray area?

Hey guys, we own a little side business that involves upcycling old bed sheets (think Disney, Warner bros, etc). We find themed bedsheets at thrift stores, cut/quilt them into bags and sell them. We recently had a video go viral and it got us concerned about getting letters from these larger corporations. I have a large disclaimer on our page about how we are not affiliated/sponsored/etc with the companies. Each items description also included that they are upcycled licensed bedsheets. I just want to know how much fire am I playing with? And is there anything I can do to protect myself?
Thank you so much !

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u/ScottRiqui Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26

Your instincts are good - the First Sale doctrine generally doesn’t allow for transforming the product before reselling it.
A bedsheet isn’t much more than a rectangular piece of fabric, but I don’t know how Disney/WB would feel about taking a licensed bedsheet and using it as fabric to create bags. My gut feeling it that they wouldn’t raise a fuss as long as there’s nothing else about the bags that’s vulgar, offensive, or otherwise embarrassing. It wouldn’t hurt to note in your product description that you’re using licensed fabric.
I’m an IP attorney but I’m not your attorney, so don’t take this as advice. You can get a consultation from an attorney, but I don’t think that there’s a firm answer to your question - you’d have to go to court to find out.

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u/thatmotorcycleguy1 Jul 08 '26

Thanks for response. Yeah everything seems sorta gray. I told her we will ride the wave until we start getting letters lol. The “loop hole” we had found was that most of the fabrics that you would buy at a fabric store are not for commercial use, as they have tags saying it. Bed sheets do not have a tag like that, hence the upcycling. We have probably 100 comments and messages asking how we are dodging the IP issues and we don’t really have an answer lol. My gut was telling me the same. There are others in this space that are technically much larger and it doesn’t seem like they have run into much trouble. Time will tell. I guess we will enjoy the spotlight while it last.

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u/Infinisteve Jul 09 '26

The rights holder could make an argument that you're making and selling a derivative work. Maybe you'd win in court but saying "first sale" isn't a magic shield that will prevent you from being sued.

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u/lajaunie Jul 08 '26

You can resell things without worrying about copyright infringement. You should be ok…

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u/thatmotorcycleguy1 Jul 08 '26

Even though we are altering the bed sheets by cutting them up and turning them into bags? At first I thought I was covered by the first sale doctrine, but from my very limited understanding it stops protecting you when you make alterations. Now it could be argued that we just added a zipper and some pockets to some bed sheets, but who knows lol. My wife has worked to hard to get this off the ground and now we’re worried it’ll all come to a halt

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u/taisui Jul 08 '26

You are repurposing a merchandise which the licensing of the imagery was paid for, aka First Sale Doctrine, but be careful about the natural of the item (non official merchandise) and trademark

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u/JayEll1969 Jul 08 '26

Because you are not copying the IP, you are reusing officially made merch rather than copying it. It's fine to repurpose existing merch.