New Texas Tartan

[RockyR]

Matt...

I didn't mean to imply that the tartans by David McGill were official. His normal MO seems to be that he creates a tartan, weaves it and makes ties in it. He sends a tie to a person in authority at the state / government and waits for his "thank you" letter. Once he gets his Thank You, he calls it "officially recognized" and prints the letter. It's THIS process that I (we?) see as most dubious and deceitful.

I agree that having a state tartan copyrighted seems to be against better judgement for the state. I agree that it may not hold up in court. Here's the issue: Who has the money to challenge it? Attorney fees for an IP attorney (which I just hired for a separate issue of copyrighting other things and drawing up Intellectual Property agreements / contracts) run about $270 / hour in Pennsylvania. Obtaining a copyright is relatively easy and can actually be done without an attorney for a few hundred or WITH an attorney for a couple grand. If you wanted to challenge an existing copyright, it would cost you upwards of $20,000 (and probably much more) in the blink of an eye... and that's not guaranteeing a win. What little mom and pop Irish shop is willing to put out that kind of money on the HOPE that they'll overturn a copyright and maybe get to use the tartan in question? The practical question is how much money would they make from the tartan itself? Most likely, the hassle of all this wouldn't be worth it.

The 13 oz cloth from HOE with a tuck selvedge... their Hebridean range (13 oz) comes with a tuck selvedge, though none of their clan tartans do to my knowledge. Clans are all woven on their single width traditional selvedge. USA Kilts has had several tartans woven custom (including the special run of Pennsylvania tartan, the Scruffy Wallace tartan, and a few others for pipe bands and groups) on their rapier looms in 13 oz with the tuck selvedge. It is a bit less expensive than their single width traditional selvedge and it's done very well (IMHO).