Apologies if this isn't the kind of stuff I should be asking on MN legal - feel free to tell me to bugger off for being trivial.
I'm a long term poster - MNHQ can check if necessary.
I'm starting a business and I'm at the stage where I'm making sample products for market research purposes. I've had to source from America a fabric that I will use for a small part of one of my products.
For lots of reasons, I would like to alter elements of the fabric design but I'm aware that the end result would look quite a lot like the original - in the way that the pink roses on blue background fabrics that are in every fabric shop look like Cath Kidston, whether they are hers or not.
I don't want to rip off the original designer - as that fabric isn't exactly what I want but I do want to adapt her design and get it printed here or in Europe without getting into legal trouble.
Thanks