Username & Number: Ammoth, #7925
Villager ID Number: #49683
Rejection Notice Received:
“This Paintie has trademarked or copyrighted material, or includes some references to trademarked or copyrighted material. Please ensure your Paintie is not based on any characters that do not belong to you, and does not include any trademarked or copyrighted symbols or references. If you have any questions about this rejection please use the “contact us” link at the bottom of the page.”


I was not aware that my character was similar to a copyrighted character, and the rejection notice does not mention which character it is supposed to be referencing. Please tell me which copyrighted character or material I am infringing on so that I may fix it.


If concerns of copyright are due to the paintie looking like characters from Lewis Carroll’s books ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ and ’Through the Looking-Glass’, those have been in the public domain since 1907. The books in their entirety can be found on the Project Gutenberg:
- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: ow.ly/T2D3306kdzm
- Through the Looking-Glass: ow.ly/EuHY306kdDc
- as well as anything else Lewis Carroll has written.

John Tenniel’s illustrations for the books, which served as a base for the paintie, are also public domain, and can be found on the Project Gutenberg:
- ow.ly/c6jG306kdGo

More information on the public domain: ow.ly/WUjC306kdB9


The paintie that has been rejected is loosely based on a Cheshire Cat (a creature that predates even Carroll’s book) and Carroll’s Hatter. The elements that reference these characters are:
- a grin on a cat character.
- the hat (without the typical hatband), a bow, and a high collar as can be seen in Tenniel’s illustrations of the Hatter, although the patterns don’t match the illustrations.
- the teapot and teacups reminiscent of the famous mad tea party.

This paintie does not, to my knowledge, contain any elements that have been added to the characters in later renditions of them.
Again, if the paintie does bear semblance to a copyrighted character or material, please tell me which elements of the paintie you mean, which copyrighted character or material is being infringed on, and who holds the copyright to it, so that I may fix it accordingly.