Lindex.com Alleged to Have Ripped off Sleepy King’s “Liam the Fox”
ATTORNEYSCOTT COMMENTARY:
Sleepy King's absolutely adorable Liam the Fox character may not be the most complex artistic creation, but it is certainly creative enough to be covered by copyright protection (at least here in the US, I do not profess to be an expert in Swedish intellectual property law). A large Scandinavian company apparently has brought to market a series of products that bears a very familiar and adorable fox character. Is something rotten at this smorgasbord?
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Dear YTWWN:
Some of you know by now that the large Swedish corporation – Lindex has stolen one of my most beloved designs that I created in 2009. I found out about this by one of my loyal fans in Norway. She recognized the design as a Sleepy King original and instantly felt disgusted and angry. If she wouldn't have emailed me about this I may have never found out.
I am heart broken to say the least. I work so hard, and take great pride in my designs. I have many fans who know and love my work for it’s originality. It is painful to have my work ripped away from me behind my back by a giant corporation. Who knows how many of these they have sold already? Hundreds? Thousands? While I sit here in my tiny two bedroom rental, working as hard as I possibly can to make ends meet, Lindex is cashing in on my designs.
Liam the Sleepy Woodland fox was created by me in my home in 2009. Since then he has been one of my top sellers. It’s no wonder Lindex stole my designs without asking .. they saw great potential in this little fox and knew they could make lots of money off of him.
The real Sleepy King Liam: here
The stolen Lindex design: here & here (click on the pink onesie option to see the fox design) They also took GREAT inspiration from my older bunny design: here
I am tired of these big corporations stealing from independent designers and small businesses on Etsy, Big Cartel and the like. You would think that with all of the billions they have, they could afford to hire real designers with original ideas. Corporate design theft must end for the sake of the handmade community. We should feel safe when we copyright our designs and put them out there on the internet for people to see and purchase.
Lindex has emailed me saying they are "looking into the matter" and they will get back to me soon. I am calling a lawyer tomorrow.
********UPDATE******* 10/10/2012
My story went viral on 9/9/2012. I stayed up until 4am answering emails and doing interviews with news companies in Norway and Sweden. You can read more about my story by clicking on the following links:
http://nyheter24.se/nyheter/inrikes/728061-lindex-stal-min-design
http://minmote.no/index.php/2012/10/lindex-trekker-babyplagg-etter-plagiat-anklager/
http://storify.com/linuskendall/major-swedish-retailer-blatantly-steals-independen
Hundreds of people complained on the Lindex facebook page.
Today Lindex admitted to taking great inspiration from my designs and we have agreed on a settlement. Lindex will continue to sell the merchandise with my designs until they're completely gone. They will not continue production on these products.
Black Milk Clothing Rip-Off Dali, Escher, Klimt, LucasArts and More…
Black Milk Clothing out of Australia have been making leggings and swimsuits with images on them. Many of the images seem to be appropriated from VERY well known artists - who I gather would be IMPOSSIBLE to buy rights from for such applications. There are more examples on their site than just the below but i thought it was a good starting point to see how a business has become successful (they have more than 15,000 facebook fans and seem to sell A LOT of product) off the back of other people's art.
These Star Wars referenced characters which made HUGE rounds in tech circles this year seem to have been taken off their store (no doubt due to the IP power & threats from LucasArts), but many many comments on their facebook page from the staff and fans say that you can still order it by ordering a different item and putting in the comments that you'd like the R2D2 design instead.
The Dali image - and correct me if i'm wrong - would never be sold by anyone authorized to sell it - especially to sell on a commercial product without licensing - which i'd gather from the varied selection of famous artists they have works from - Black Milk don't buy. Product Page
MC Escher as well - same comments as on Dali.
And then Klimt.
Finally: Theophile Steinlen - Product Page
There are actually a bunch more - look for the Jaws Ripoff, Venus, Uncle Sam and more. I don't know how long they'll continue to get away with producing such works or if any repercussions will come of it, but it really isn't right. Thoughts?
Profission ripped off by Katia Convents
If imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery then we are very happy to share this with you. We're about to launch a brand new portfolio tomorrow, couple of small content updates and layout amends aside, and just going through our analytics we came across Katia Convents.
Profission site is top, Katia Convents site is bottom.
Using imagery and code directly from the 2005 Profission site, and even using our google analytics urchin, the site goes as far as having a profission,png logo, but the copyright is altered to suit the new site.
This version of our site is archived here
Katia Convents is here
Here email address is [email protected]
We see this as a wonderful and poignant epilogue to a site that has served us well for five years.
Tim
