Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Alabama

I received a Cease and Desist email from someone who claims to be an attorney for Right Wing Shirts.com. Apparently they feel that a few of my t-shirt designs are infringing on their intellectual property rights because a few of my designs are fairly similar to theirs. I will admit that I may have got the idea for their design from an image of a shirt they made but my design is so much different than their's I'm surprised that they would even mention it.

Here are a couple of instances that our designs are similar and it's what they base their claim on.

Silly Liberals:

http://www.cafepress.com/rightwingstuff/616349

http://www.zazzle.com/silly_liberals_t_shirt-235161888250371329

Party like it's 1773:

http://www.cafepress.com/rightwingstuff.361783269

http://www.zazzle.com/party_like_its_1773_t_shirt-235574110468199591

It seems that they are bullying me into removing my original design. Like I said, I use all sorts of venues for inspiration but I never copy a design. If I can't make a design I see better, I don't waste my time working on it.

All I really need to know is if you think they might have a case against me. I am not nearly as big as they are and make very little from my shirt business so I don't have the means to fight them in court. It just seems silly that someone could force me to remove a design simply because it has the same point as a design they are selling.

Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.

Tom Robinson

http://www.curiousinkling.com

http://www.conservative-t-shirts.com/

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