Help with Copyright/Public Domain Beatrix Potter illustrations

[BCD]

I have a small business creating nursery baby prints.

In general I sell prints that have the original illustrations from Beatrix Potter i.e. Peter Rabbit. I do not sell any other images of Peter Rabbit that are from other artists - e.g tv show, film and the latest books. Also, I buy commercial license from artists to use in my designs.

I was under the impression that her illustrations went into the public domain in 2014, but when I go to the site it states Peter Rabbit is under copyright and permission needs to be sort.

This comes on the back of a fellow seller messaging other sellers, including me, stating that he is working with Penguin Random House legal team to bring the prints down, so sent and rang all of the sellers (at least 4) saying we have to take them down and it is infringing his items. He sells wallstickers with the TV art and some prints with the original Peter Rabbit illustrated by Beatrix Potter.

I have contacted the sites Vero team and they confirm that my items have no violations, but I still have some worries

Any help would be most appreciated
BCD

 

[The Byre]

The rights to the images are owned by Frederick Warne & Co. (owned by media giant Bertelsmann) and licenced to The Disney Corporation, Hasbro and others. They are copyrighted and trademarked. Your chances of using them are zero.

One thing people do not realise is that the copyright may be renewed with every reproduction, depending on the scope of the changes made for the reproduction. Such changes may be to enhance the colours or to remix an old recording. To stand a gnat's butt of a chance of being able to use anything, you must prove access to the original or a copy made at the time of the original.

But now we come to trademarks - each and every Potter character had been trademarked. You would be using someone's trademark. Even if you had original Peter Rabbit images from 1902, you would still be infringing their trademark, but possibly not the copyright.

 

[BCD]

The Byre - Thank you so much for your explanation, this has made more sense than some of the websites legal team.

I very much appreciate it x