Antique Shop Takes Ownership Culture To New Level, Sues Over Lamps It Doesn't Own
from the you-want-to-know-what's-obsolete? dept
When we talk about the differences between infringing on the copyright of content and concepts involving copying tangible goods, one of the examples we often use is the idea that if you bought a chair, and then decided you wanted a copy of that chair and went and made one yourself, that's usually perfectly legal (barring certain limited trademark or potentially patent issues). Of course, in an era where we've taught people that they get to "own" concepts, people get upset about these kinds of things and will try to twist laws to make it "wrong."Reader Valerio points us to a truly bizarre lawsuit, filed by a small antiques shop, called Obsolete, in Los Angeles against the large retailer, Restoration Hardware. The complaint? That Restoration Hardware bought some lamps from Obsolete and then made similar lamps for sale in its own stores. Think about this for a second. These are not lamps that Obsolete made or owned any other rights to. It simply owned those particular lamps, which it then sold, meaning it no longer had any rights to those lamps.
There's no justifiable intellectual property claim here (because that would be laughed out of court in seconds), so the antiques shop owner tries to come up with ways to twist other laws into making this action illegal. He claims that since the buyer did not admit that she worked for Restoration Hardware, and it's Obsolete's general policy not to sell to retailers or competitors, this was intentional misrepresentation, fraudulent concealment, negligent misrepresentation, false advertising and unfair competition. However, on the website that Obsolete has set up about the case, the owner is more direct, claiming that it's about "ethics."
Funny, but I don't see anything whatsoever unethical about buying nice antique lamps and then making newer, cheaper versions for sale to people who want to buy them. I do however see plenty that's unethical in suing a company and twisting the law because you don't like what a company has done.
I can't see how any of these claims can really stand up. The first three charges rely on California civil codes 1709 and 1710. Both laws are clearly intended for outright fraud that causes harm. I can't see how either apply. This wasn't a case of fraud. This is a case of someone purchasing a product legitimately. That Obsolete doesn't want those products to end up at other retailers is not a legal issue. It's not something Obsolete really has control over. The "false advertising" claim appears to be based on Obsolete saying that Restoration Hardware implied it found these objects itself. It did. It found them from him. Just like he found them from someone else. I don't see how that's false advertising at all. The "unfair competition" claim doesn't seem to be clearly stated or explained at all. It's basically -- yet again -- Obsolete claiming it doesn't like this.
Furthermore, it's hard to see how there's any harm here. In fact, in the lawsuit itself, Obsolete admits that Restoration Hardware's versions of the lamps don't have "the quality, historical significance, artistry, or any of the other characteristics prized by Obsolete and its clients." In other words, in its own lawsuit, Obsolete flat out admits that these knockoffs don't harm Obsolete, because Obsolete's customers are discerning and want the real thing instead of the copies. Frankly, I'm sort of amazed that Obsolete completely undercuts its own argument directly within its own filing. This also completely refutes the unfair competition claim, since Obsolete itself admits that Restoration Hardware isn't competing for Obsolete's customers.
Either way, this is yet another example of the ridiculous results you get when you build up the belief that ownership extends beyond physical items to some sort of amorphous intangible "right." In this case, it's not intellectual property, but Obsolete's bizarre claim that only it can ever have any connection with such lamps.
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Filed Under: antiques, copying, ethics, ownership culture
Companies: obsolete, restoration hardware
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It's about time
Hooray for self-refutation! \o/
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I gotta say...
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I can see why Obsolete is offended
Restoration Hardware wants to make non-scarce cheap copies that people can inexpensively buy and enjoy.
Like the copyright maximalists, the underlying offense here is felony interference with creating artificial scarcity where no natural scarcity actually exists.
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Re: I can see why Obsolete is offended
The opposite of "scarce" is "abundant", but "abundant" doesn't mean "lots", it means "so much that you don't have to worry about it." An example of something that's abundant is air. The lamp copies are not like air, so they aren't abundant, they're scarce.
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In addition, there seems to be no affirmative deception. I am wary of cases for failing to tell someone something. I believe that everyone should have to work to get any sort of legal protection in this realm. If you don't want to sell to a certain type of people, you should have an affirmative duty to ask if they are of that class and reasonably investigate your customers. If you are not willing to do that, then it obviously isn't worth much to you and you should not be protected.
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$7,500 for a lamp?
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Gay
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Re:
Cha-Ching!
Maybe Obsolete felt it was an attack on them directly, that by mass producing new "antiques" would destroy their business model.
The commercial would have been a unique response, but I doubt people who were Restoration Hardware customers would be interested in going to Obsolete to find a lamp they liked, only to find out you can't match it. To paraphrase Bette Midler, Art is to free the soul, but we still buy the painting to match the sofa.
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ethics for others
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Ideas are hard to contain
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Concept of "Sale" Being Elimnated
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Of course, there is inherently nothing wrong with making copies of something that is not protected under classical IP law. At the same time, however, it does seem to me that there is something not quite right about Restoration Hardware allowing the plaintiff to do all the heavy lifting, and then swooping in and taking advantage of what the plaintiff has done.
Having read the complaint, and being well familiar with California's laws relating to unfair competition, in my opinion the plaintiff's complaint does set forward meritorious causes of action.
Will the plaintiff prevail? Of course, that will depend upon the evidence discovered pre-trial and presented at trial.
But at this juncture to suggest that the plaintiff is overreaching and should be vilified is plainly wrong.
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Working for the plaintiff, are you?
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Re: Working for the plaintiff, are you?
Did you by chance even read the complaint, followed by the all too predictable rant in this article?
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Re:
You mean finding items they intend to sell to others. They "cherry picked"... You mean like every other person who goes to Obsolete to find items they desire? Restoration did not steal the items out of the store or from the hands of clients. They purchased items like anyone else could.
They sold an item and are unhappy with what the new owner did with it. Does Obsolete intend to sue any customers who might unload their previous finds in a garage sale? Do they intend to sue if someone puts a red shade on a lamp they sold with a white shade?
Obsolete decided to go for a pound of flesh, probably on the advice of a lawyer who told them they would be rich. The downside is people will not want to shop at Obsolete now, because if they have a reproduction made to have 2 matching items Obsolete has shown they will sue you for competing with them.
Unfair competition... When did Restoration Hardware enter the antiques market? Did Restoration tell customers to not shop at Obsolete because they were going to buy all of the stock there and reproduce it at a cheap price later?
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lamp
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"It's not wasteful if it's expensive."
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false advertising by RH
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