Copycats

I've been hesitating a little over publishing this post, but then I thought 'well why the hell not', it's not me in the wrong here!!

You might wonder what I am talking about... well a couple of months ago, just before Christmas actually, I was randomly searching on the Internet for something  (anchor print fabric I seem to remember) when I came across some images of some beach hut hangers that literally made me gasp and do a complete double take...

Look familiar?????

Yes, I thought so too... I could hardly believe my eyes... Practically identical to my beach hut lavender bags! A quick search on Google and I could see this wasn't just some home crafter being a little too 'inspired'. 

©Jenny Arnott

I managed to find out the name of the company who are selling them, which is a large gift wholesaler here in the UK, but with manufacturing overseas I think. They have a huge range, and a massive customer base from what I can see - they exhibit at lots of trade shows throughout the year, so if you attend these sort of events, you may well have seen them or even bought from them.

I don't know whether they design in house or buy artwork from freelancers, but wherever they got the idea, in my eyes it is very clearly mine. I have been selling my beach hut lavender bags since 2010 and have lots of evidence to back this up, including sales of the items, as well as dated picture uploads on this blog, and places like facebook etc. 

I do actually have an example of their knock off product and their version is a cheap, rubbishy copy, obviously made in some factory somewhere. It retails for less than half of what mine does but boy does it show! Plus their product photography is awful.

Now I'm not claiming to have invented beach hut lavender bags at all. There are many, many examples if you look around the Internet, I certainly wasn't the first to make them. But what makes mine different from the rest are the fabrics I've chosen, the shape and the details such as the bunting, door number and knocker, the life ring on the roof... basically all the separate elements which make up the design and the way I put them together. I felt so angry and upset when I first found out... I mean how lazy and unethical do they have to be?! They have used practically every single element of my design (bar the fact that theirs have no lavender in them.) 

I immediately contacted the company directly, basically asking them to stop selling/making the product at once. They  agreed there were 'some similarities' (some???) between our products but agreed without putting up a fight to remove their beach huts from sale. It is difficult to know for sure whether they have kept their word. I know they have removed it from their trade website at least, and I have people on my side who were keeping an eye out for me at Spring Fair to make sure they weren't exhibiting with it.

However, they did not accept liability for copying. To be honest, I didn't push it further at the time. It was Christmas, and I was just glad they agreed to remove them from sale. To pursue the legal route would take money I don't have, and I don't think I could handle the stress anyway! Plus, you only have to change a few minute details on a design for it to be classed as a 'new design' anyway so they may have changed just enough to get away with it in the eyes of a court, even though it is quite clearly 'heavily inspired' by my work.

I'm not really sure why I am writing this post now, as technically it is done and dusted now... except it still keeps niggling away at the back of my brain. It's just frustrating that as a small business, it is difficult to come up against the big boys and they just get away with it. That's probably what they count on when ripping off other people's designs. That they know nothing will really happen. If they get found out, they just stop using the design, and probably move onto someone else. They've probably done it many times over.

Copying unfortunately does go on all the time in the design world... every time I log on to facebook there are always pages stealing other people's images and designs. Inspiration is fine - we are all 'inspired', consciously or unconsciously, every day by the things we see around us, especially with the Internet making everything so accessible these days. Plus there are only so many ideas out there - you would be hard pressed to find something so new and innovative that it is truly 'original'. But there is a  definite line between being inspired and just direct copying. And it's obviously not just small scale crafters to blame. I have read so many awful stories in the last few months about big, supposedly reputable companies who have used other artists' work and designs, it is really shocking how widespread the problem is.

 

So anyway if I could ask you all to keep an eye out for these hangers when you are out and about in the next few months, I would be really grateful. If you can let me know if you see any anywhere that would be appreciated. Little boutiques and gift shops are where they are most likely to be found. Hopefully though they have kept their word and are no longer selling them.

Anyway, thanks for reading, will be back soon with a more 'normal' post xxx

p.s My cushion giveaway is still open - I might have to close it early due to the huge volume of entries I've had on my blog/facebook page, so make sure you enter before it is too late! x