Here's that slippery slope-sizzix suing heartfelt creations

Oh my gosh!  Sizzix-Ellison seem to be going on some sort of power-trip   GO AVERY ELLE!  And GO, everyone else who is fighting it.  

I am curious though why SE picked certain companies to go after but not others.  Anyone got any ideas or clues?

Sizzix is just the biggest effin idiots I have ever seen. This lawsuit has got to be the most insane one we have ever seen in our industry. Good for the companies fighting back. I guess Prima just didn't want to deal with the drama and stress. Not blaming them for that choice. I completely understand.

I remember that one of the die companies was doing that stamp/die line up technique at CHA a few years back. It was still CHA then. Does anyone remember that? It could have been Heartfelt. This is way before Sizzix and patents. You can go over to SCS and do a search for threads of stampers excitement over die/stamp combo's way before Sizzix patents.

I'm glad to see that HC's dies are "open," that gives more ammunition to the fact that the Ellison/Sizzix patent is bogus.  PTIs dies, at least back then, were closed, or just basically a solid piece of metal with cutting edges around the outside line.  I haven't bought from them in years, but I have a stamp set/coordinating die that you have to either die cut first, then stamp to get lined up right, or stamp, then use a paper template to line up, tape in place, then remove the template.

Thank you, amaylylac. I am improving.

I don't know that much about patent law. I assume it has some similarities to copyright laws, though, which I do know a little about. I'm not an expert, however. In copyright law, if you adapt something that someone else has created, you cannot share it, sell it, or anything unless you had permission from the designer whose work you adapted. It is called a derivative work when you adapt someone else's design, and you have to have permission to even make a derivative work. Long gone are the days when someone could make a few changes and claim an adapted design as their own.

If it isn't essentially the same in patent law, or at least similar, it should be.

I decided this morning to subscribe to Spellbinders small die of the month. I've always liked Spellbinders designs better than Sizzix....overall, anyway.

It occurred to me this afternoon, that no matter what the Sizzix patent and their lawyers claim, Sizzix can't risk suing Spellbinders, because Spellbinders actually invented the thin, etched dies. Such a lawsuit would be likely to blow up in the Sizzix CEO's face. If he doesn't know that, the Sizzix lawyers probably do.

So Sizzix will never be able to eliminate all their competition, and Spellbinders is seriously stiff competition.

The small companies being sued are fighting Sizzix. Avery Elle is claiming harrassment, etc., and they're asking for the courts to force Sizzix to pay their legal fees. If the other companies being sued do the same thing, this can potentially end very badly for Sizzix.

I double checked I am posting in the right thread this time, lol.

I got a new die cutter. I know some of you are looking to replace your Sizzix. I wanted to post in case it helps anyone doing research for a new cutter. I did not get a new cutter because of the Sizzix lawsuit. My Sizzix Vintaj was too bulky and I was spraining my wrist a lot trying to move it. My DH surprised me with Spellbinder's Platinum 6 for Mother's Day.

I got the Jane Davenport Mermaid one! OMG! I am really excited, lol. If you are all looking for a cutter that is similar to the Cuttlebug or the Sizzix BigShot. This seems really close. It folds up nicely like the Cuttlebug. It is very sturdy. It is heavy but you can carry it around easily. The sandwich system is similar to the Cuttlebug. If you love mermaids Jane has a mermaid design cutter. It's the little things, lol.

I know the Gemini is super popular right now. I know some of us are still working with steel rule dies. I noticed there were not a lot of steel rule die cutters on the market unless you started looking at quilting. The Spellbinder's Platinum 6 does use steel rule and it can cut through the materials the BigShot can. I hope this helps somebody.

I've had my P6 for a while now and I absolutely love it!

This sounds like a bad fanfiction summary. o__O;; Deserving of the 'Dead Dove: Do Not Eat" label.

No worries, I didn't even notice it was in the wrong thread - they all tend to blend together regardless. n_n;

Our Tuesday Morning had the Gemini awhile back. I think it was the bigger one. I didn't buy it, and now it's gone. I definitely regret not buying it when I could, although the Gemini Junior is probably sufficient for my needs, anyway.

I have seen very little Spellbinders dies at my TM. I didn't like what they had, so I didn't look at the prices. I have bought some Crafter's Companion dies for a good price, though.

I have also found some fabulous papers there. Dies, stamps, and pretty papers are my weakness. I've bought a few tools at TM, but I have usually already got the tools well before they show up at TM. However, that is where I found the Tim Holtz Travel Platform for $12.99, as well as my Big Shot for $49.99.

My TM has a big stack of the Sizzix Big Kick machines for the same price. It looks like absolutely none have sold in the last week or two. Maybe they have replenished them from the back, and it's just a misperception, but they had a stack of 8 a week ago, and they still had a stack of 8 on Thursday, a week later.

The big box stores tend to have very little scrapping/stamping products other than their house brand. I always buy online since I don’t have an LSS in the area. No more Sizzix though.

I was at a convention a week and a half ago.  Many, many booths were swamped (Stampers Anonymous, Echo Park, Photo Play, Totally Tiffany and some booth selling $20 boxes of American Crafts card stock for $11, just to name a few).  Check out times at these booths were 30 to  45 minutes.  Most other booths had a reasonable number of people in line to check out and waiting times were 10 minutes or so.  The two times I passed the Sizzix booth no one was in line to check out and there were 2 or 3 people browsing.

I'll be interested to hear what your convention is like, scrapnnana.

I suspect that many crafters are completely unaware of the lawsuits.

At the conventions, back when there was controversy here about the MISTI, lots of women were buying the pink platforms at conventions, despite the high prices, and despite the many gals here who swore the MISTI would never be among their purchases. The women at convention knew nothing about the Misit lawsuit.

Sometimes you can get deals at the conventions, especially if you print off "early bird" coupons to use right when the booths open, but that isn't why I go. The advantage of the conventions is finding products that you don't find elsewhere, all in one place. It's the thrill of the hunt. The booths also often have projects on display, and many of them let you take photos. Not all do. I always ask first.

To be honest, the Sizzix booth has usually been less popular than many of the other booths. They usually have people browsing, but I have almost never bought Sizzix dies at convention. I think part of it is because I can find their stuff at the hobby stores (where I can get it on sale or with a coupon), or at the LSS. The other part of it is that they just aren't as innovative in their designs. Marianne Design dies, which I first found at convention years ago, are far more creative than Sizzix. Pinterest is filled with cards that were made using Marianne dies. I will be looking for some specific Marianne dies when I go. That booth is always crowded. I hate crowds, too, but convention is the one place that I will brave the crowds.

I discovered Heartfelt Creations at convention years ago, too. They have some truly gorgeous and unusual dies, stamps, and papers. They also teach you how to make lovely 3D flowers with their dies that are so much prettier than flower embellishments that you find in the stores. If you want to spend the money for an even easier way to make flowers, they have flower shaping molds, too, which I think are truly unique to them. Their booth is usually very busy. I now buy from them online, but I will probably still stop by their booth.

I came across Karen Burniston's booth at convention for the first time last year. She is an engineer and has designed some very unusual dies for making clever and cute pop up cards. They take time to make, but I definitely want to visit her booth again.

Most of the conventions now are geared toward both scrapbookers and stampers, and some other types of crafts are thrown into the mix, too. When stamps started showing up at scrapbook conventions, I heard a lot of grumbling from scrapbookers, but I was thrilled. I was a stamper and card maker long before I ever started scrapbooking.

It's easy to spend a chunk of change at the conventions. It's definitely something to save up for.