Well-established indie embroiderer and embroidery kit purveyor Jenny Hart (Sublime Stitching, pic top right) is justifiably outraged that a corporate interest called Urban Threads (pic bottom left) is apparently copying her designs, her business model, and her indie vibe.
As reported on Whip Up, "Jenny says that Urban Threads has disingenuously positioned itself as a small “indie” operation, that it is actually an “indie” front for a bigger, machine/digitized embroidery stock art company, Embroidery Library Inc. And says that “Urban Threads” appears to be their attempt to enter the “indie” market with hand embroidery, complete with a supposed “indie crafter” for a figurehead."
Read more about the issue and Jenny's concern here.I wonder if one way artists and designers can protect their work is to trademark their name and thereby all the work they sign? I'm not a copyright lawyer, but there must be some way for especially higher-profile artists like Jenny to protect their work.
Posted by Amy Shaw for Greenjeans.
Posts
1 comment:
Artists automatically have copyright when they produce something in a tangible form.
http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-general.html
Can't copyright ideas, or themes and from what I understand both these companies used similar themes (such as the retro style christmas ornaments) that have been around a lot longer than they have.
It is a shame but I don't think Sublime actually has a case, morally perhaps but not legally.
Post a Comment