Stolen Design

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teihoata

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#71304 8-Nov-2010 17:14

For my birthday my girlfriend (whom is a graphic designer) decided to design me a t shirt. She designed a kind of kiwiana shirt, definitely one of the best designs I have ever seen.

Anyway, she went to a shirt printing shop in sylvia park to get it printed onto a shirt for me.

A few months later we get a text from her sister saying that the shop has her design on a mannequin in the front of the store for sale. I go into the shop asking whether the shirt is for sale and low and behold they are indeed selling the shirt for $40, quite a premium considering its just a print on a normal white shirt.

My girlfriend never signed anything while dealing with these people (just gave them the design on a disc and they printed it and gave the disc back) and was never warned that they were going to sell it. Because this is not America but New Zealand, an advisory told us the only thing we could do was apparently enforce them to take it down.

Who knows how many copies of the shirt was initially sold and how much of a profit the store made from this stolen design.

Are New Zealand companies really allowed to do this?!

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#401766 8-Nov-2010 17:18

Ask them nicely if they have any terms of service, and where it is?
It could be that it is near their counter? and the reciept states you have agreed to it by purchasing their services?

If there is nothing, ask to speaking to the owner/manager, and request that they remove their design, while explaning why, as nicely as possible.

If they decline/refuse/ignore you then, send them a letter asking again, and include all relevant facts, including the time you verbally requested them to remove it.

IANAL, so I would suggest you speak to your local community law centre.

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#401769 8-Nov-2010 17:20

Check with your local CAB or Community Law Centre.

Naturally, if I remember correctly, if you can prove or provide evidence that an interlecture property belongs to you, then you effectively personally own the copyrights and you don't need to file a formal copyrights certificate or anything.

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graemeh

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#401773 8-Nov-2010 17:25

teihoata: Are New Zealand companies really allowed to do this?!

No, it's a breach of copyright, unless she agreed that they could use the design themselves, this could be buried in their terms and conditions of sale - but somehow I doubt they are this organised or devious.

She can take them to the disputes tribunal or just go to the local media and make a big stink about it (or both). Since it's in a mall she may also be able to get the mall management to get heavy on the shop as the managers won't want the bad publicity that can come from this.

teihoata

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#401779 8-Nov-2010 17:34

The receipt was a generic eftpos receipt with no indication of accepting any terms or conditions. I was unable to see any conditions anywhere on the front counter for that matter so I suppose they don't abide to any.
We have already asked them to take it down, they were reluctant at first but took it down eventually. We took pictures to back up the claim in case we were able to take it further.
I suppose we will have to consult with CAB and see what they have to say about the matter.
Thanks for the suggestions

rscole86

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#401785 8-Nov-2010 17:45

As they have complied, and I assume you have not been trying to profit from the design to day, then it sounds like mission accomplished.

dacraka

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#401799 8-Nov-2010 18:26

teihoata: definitely one of the best designs I have ever seen.

Personally I would love to see this awesome design!

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jbard

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#401806 8-Nov-2010 18:46

Although they have complied this doesn't quite seem enough to me. They have far overstepped the line by profiting off a design that was not theirs and breaching copyright laws. I would see how far you could take this?

teihoata

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#401814 8-Nov-2010 19:00

Here's the design in question for anyone interested lol maybe I'll just place this here ©
I too would also like to see how far I can take this. Using someone else's work is simply unacceptable.

mattRSK

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#401827 8-Nov-2010 19:57

That design does contain a number of brand names that could cause an issue.

tardtasticx

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#401860 8-Nov-2010 21:03

mattRSK: That design does contain a number of brand names that could cause an issue.

Yeh which sucks because thats a really nice design. Really really busy for my eyes so I probably wouldnt wear it but it looks really kiwi

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#401879 8-Nov-2010 21:53

mattRSK: That design does contain a number of brand names that could cause an issue.

+1

If you try to make too much of an issue, some bigger fish may be attracted to this particular pool. First thing I thought of when I saw the design was how similar to the Line 7 (L7) logo the boxes looked - although rotated 90°.

That aside, the shop has no rights whatsoever to profit from your partners work without agreement.

Agree with you though, it is a really good design, especially with all the sheep :-)

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teihoata

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#401889 8-Nov-2010 22:28

I never thought about all the other brands inside the image, oh well. Let's hope they don't go selling other people's designs.
Never heard of Line 7 but I suppose it does sort of resemble that, it's supposed to be a lot of Ns and Zs mixed together artsy-like without resembling a Swastika.

LennonNZ

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#401899 9-Nov-2010 00:06

Did you ask them why they copied your design without your permission?

wmoore

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#401905 9-Nov-2010 01:30

Lot's of good info re copyright and registered design protection can be found on the MED website.

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Balchy

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#401928 9-Nov-2010 08:10

teihoata:

Here's the design in question for anyone interested lol maybe I'll just place this here ©
I too would also like to see how far I can take this. Using someone else's work is simply unacceptable.

Sweet, off to the printers I go!!

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