There’s a quote I heard in a television commercial: No one has a monopoly on good ideas. I’d like to believe that’s true. I understand what’s at the heart of that statement. But in a world where ideas are copied and artwork is plagiarized, a concern exists that nothing is truly our own. Once we put it out in the open, a good idea can instantly be copied and redistributed under someone else’s name.
This is happening right now to John T. Unger.
John T. Unger – an artist known for his finely crafted artisanal firebowls – has become involved in a gross legal battle with a company that has stolen his designs. But the lawsuit was not filed by John to stop the company that copied his work. The suit was filed by the company to force John to lose his copyright and the control of his ideas.
It’s clear John’s work has been plagiarized – from the design of the products to the names under which they were previously sold. He has a terrific case. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have the funds to fight an extended legal battle. He’s afraid his finances (and his business) will fail as the plagiarist works to drag the case out.
John is struggling against an entity that has taken his ideas, mass-produced cheap knockoffs, and is using the money made from the theft of his designs to shut him down. This cannot be allowed to happen.
Visit John’s site to learn more about his plight and discover what you can do to help him maintain the rightful ownership of his creations: http://www.johntunger.com/legal-defense-fund.html
King Unicorn is a guest blogger here at Grimvisions. You can see more of his work at http://kingunicorn.blogspot.com/
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Regarding "Poor man's copyright": http://resourcesforwriters.suite101.com/article.c…
This one has good info too: http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2006/08/25/the-myt…
Those are good policies that everyone should adopt… I'm older and wiser now but there's still this grey area where you have to go out there and share your ideas or you won't continue to get work… but the sharks make you so nervous and defensive, sometimes you back off from genuine people who want to collaborate with you. It's a strange old world!
Thanks for sharing your story, Yve. It's ridiculous how often this happens. Having been on the receiving end of a litigation threat, this is a subject that's near and dear to my heart.
For up-and-coming artists, veteran freelancers, and small businesses, a threat of litigation is usually enough to scare anyone off – even if we're the ones who are in the right. And the common tactic to starve the financial drive of an artist/small business by dragging out the legal process is a dirty, cowardly tactic.
A habit I've developed – a sort of poor man's James Bond approach to copyright protection – is to mail myself the original work and duplicate files for any project I develop and intend to show to anyone else. The duplicates are usually cleaned up versions of the scratch notes and scribbles (the original work) that are the earliest ideas for of a project. If ever there's a dispute over the intellectual property, I can at least bring to bear a sealed file dated by a federal agency as proof of when those ideas were first developed. That might not spare me intense legal fees, but it does give me a terrific weapon in the defense of my ideas.
This happened to me to a lesser extent, I showed an idea for a children's book/show that I was developing to a company when I went to see them about doing some freelance work. Mistake number one! They liked it and said that they might be interested in helping me to develop the idea and approach TV companies. I worked it up some more but wasn't happy with the direction they wanted to take my original idea and also wasn't happy that we had nothing signed (Mistake number 2) so pulled out of the collaboration quite early on. How naive was I?
The company continued to develop MY original idea even though we had parted company on the grounds that they would not do so (again, I sent them this in writing but they never returned the signed copy) – When it came on the market in a very butchered form, after my initial shock, I approached them to say that they were infringing my copyright and was basically told that I could no longer show my version of the work as they had assumed ownership. They sent me papers to sign to say that I relinquished all rights to the work (I never got paid a penny by the company even for the damn freelance work that I did do for them!) and was told in no uncertain terms that they would sue me into the middle of next week if I tried to show my version to anyone or claim that their version was based on my original in any way. They are a big company – I am a struggling freelance designer, so guess who backed off? I really hope Mr Unger finds someone with big money or a s**t hot pro bono lawyer to take up his battle because in the end it's always the money that wins
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