I just learned about 4b825dc642cb6eb9a060e54bf8d69288fbee4904

well that sucks. apparently the ALA/Freedom To Read Foundation have trademarks on the phrase "free people read freely", which i use in a lino print i made into stickers a few years ago.

i got the phrase from a 2023 speech by librarian and former ALA leader Tracie D. Hall. i didn't think to check if it was trademarked because, lol, what a wild thing to trademark. turns out the trademark had been granted two months before i made the print.

it's no big deal from a business perspective — i don't sell these stickers for much more than they cost, because i mostly just think it's an important message that i want to help people share. just a bummer.

anyway if you were wondering what happened to the stickers, now you know

(reposted this after realizing i had the chronology wrong in the OP. i originally thought all of the trademarks were filed after i made my print, but had missed the original one, which was in fact filed previously.)

2026/08/10