Cosplayer Sent Cease & Desist By Carpet Company For Hotel Carpet Camouflage
from the carpet-bombing dept
The realm of cosplay seems to hold a strange spot in intellectual property limbo, where everyone is conscious that the getups are homages to popular movies, comics and video games, but nobody really seems to do more than shrug it off. Perhaps it's because everyone realizes these people are fans and are probably doing way more good than harm in expressing their fandom, or perhaps it's because you just shouldn't take the kind of forty year old guy willing to dress up in a Hello Kitty outfit to court and expect any good to come out of it. Either way, you typically don't see a great deal of hand-wringing by media companies over cosplaying.But carpet companies are apparently a different story. Harrison Krix, a prop-builder and cosplayer, put together an incredibly cool camouflage outfit for DragonCon in Atlanta. The design was based off of the carpet used by the host of the convention, Marriot Marquis Atlanta.
Then Krix decided to sell the fabric he made so that other visitors to the convention the following year would be able to melt into the floors of the hotel as well. That's when the manufacturer of the carpet sent him a cease and desist.
Seems Krix was selling some of the fabric he made for the costumes on textile site Spoonflower, so that others could make their own for next year's show. He's since had to pull the design, having received a Cease and Desist from Couristan.Someone, anyone, is going to have to tell me in what strange, stupid world it makes even a semblance of sense for Couristan to go legal on a dude selling outfits. Yes, they're based on the carpet design. Yes, they're designed specifically to look exactly like the carpet. But so what? Krix isn't competing with Couristan. The company isn't going to lose any business because he mocked up camouflage based on its carpet. What the hell?
In fact, this could have been an opportunity for Couristan to build up some good will around its name by acting human. Or, at the very least, it could have sat back and done absolutely nothing. Going legal seems to be the only possible choice that could produce a negative consequence, like getting the company name in lights for pulling a d-bag move. Well, done, Couristan!
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Filed Under: carpets, cease and desist, copyright, cosplay, designs, harrison krix
Companies: couristan
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Excuse-me as I re-read the article misreading this specific word for extended laughter.
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In all seriousness though, it looks like Courtesan's C&D is perfectly justified. There's probably a trademark on that specific design that they need to enforce, especially if Mr. Krix is using it commercially, instead of just for personal use, like he did by selling the fabric with said design without the company's permission.
Stupid? Yes, but that's the messed up world of IP law for you.
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1) You never NEED to enforce a trademark - they could have licensed this or ignored it without ill effect
2) Unless they also have a line of clothing that happens to have this particularly horrible pattern, the markets do not overlap and it is unlikely that they have a trademark claim at all
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Sure they have the copyright. But rather than send a cease and desist, why werem't the carpet company's lawyers smart enough to suggest they could simply contact the cosplayer and offer to license the fabric in return for a percentage of profits? I just don't see the benefit. If the cosplayer is ordered to cease and desist, the cosplayer and his friends get miffed and hate the venue for their shitty carpet, the carpet company gets negative publicity, and gets no profit nor promise of future profits, from the activities of the cosplayer.
FYI specific info on licensing fabrics.
http://www.tabberone.com/Trademarks/CopyrightLaw/LicensedFabric.shtml
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However, as the AC mentioned above, it's more likely a copyright issue instead of trademark.
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1) Establishing a licence to use a trademark also protects that trademark, and can be approached far more civilly. In this case the hobby production of a clothing fabric which doesn't directly conform to the specific layout of a carpet that the company doesn't even display on its homepage (so really hard to have a design trademark)? Screams for a more cautious hand.
2) Given the narrowness of trademark, infringement is often claimed where none exists. Common examples:
Using the name Coke or Coca-Cola when discussing the actual Coca-Cola product.
Using the brand and model name of a lamp when giving a bad review
Using the name of your competitor when making a factual comparison.
These are almost never infringing as trademark doesn't prevent the use of the word, only the use of the word in a manner designed or likely to confuse customers.
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Though on review, this does appear to be more a copyright issue instead of trademark.
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Also, as Ive noted in the past, the use it or lose it doctrine is way overblown in the market. But in this case, the company's trademark would have been needed to be enforced in other way, ensuring people knew that this carpet was theirs (before infringement).
On the copyright side, general mosaics are easy to establish non-dirivative and/or fair use on. here it is quite clear that the fabric is in fact dirivative of the carpet, so Fair use must be our key. The original work can be considered factual, and despite him 'selling' the fabric, its a clear non-commercial use, as the distribution of fabric is a hobby, not a business. The fabric uses much of the actual design, but that is mitigated by the fact that, if it was unconnected to the carpet, the design is so highly transformative it is unlikely to be recognized. The shapes needed to be warbed and scaled to fit presepective. This design does not replace the need for a carpet with this design. It doesn't impact that market at all. This is highly indicative of Fair Use.
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He had to use that pattern for the intended purpose: to blend into that carpet. He couldn't have done it any other way. I'm pretty sure that's also something that's looked at.
Sorry it's been a while since I last commented. Been busy playing NSA the game... uh, I mean Splinter Cell: Blacklist. It actually has a network set up similar to the NSA spying on everyone, connected to the SMI (forgot what that stands for, but it's what you get mission briefings from): it gathers & analyzes data from everything it's plugged into.
Next month (or possibly early November, I'll be getting NSA the game II, aka .
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...NSA the game II, aka Watch_Dogs.
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I've seen things I like online and asked the person who created or uploaded the image, and have always been told I could use them, even though it was for an ad-supported website. All they wanted in return was a link to their website and a bit of credit.
It only takes a moment to send an email or make a call.
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I might - might - have asked the hotel if it was OK, but it would not have even crossed my mind to try to contact the carpet manufacturer.
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People who believe they have property rights over eye-watering (or other) patterns will attempt to enforce them and, as Mike has pointed out on many occasions, the biggest war chest decides the winner; it's often easier and cheaper to settle.
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Henceforth, Couristan shall be known as "Courtesan the D-Bag Carpet Company"
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Oh, and I also think they are stupid-heads for going legal on something like this.
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Gawd that's an ugly carpet. By eyes are bleeding and I think the guy in the next cubicle is having an epilectic fit after looking over my shoulder at that pic.
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The shocking thing
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Grabbing some popcorn...
This carpet company will get "stomped" all over if they press the issue.
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To prevent even worse stupidity!
Yes, Timmy, in YOUR strange, stupid world is must make a semblance of sense, 'cause you're the one went with this trivial topic, NOT ME.
And now we all know what FINE carpet Couristan makes! FREE advertising! 'Cause the type of people who buy prestigious carpet will see this as a positive.
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Not to feed any trolls, but "free advertising" can be said of any bit of news that hits the feeds. Maybe you should cry over something more important... like spilled milk or something.
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The type of people who buy prestigious carpet will, in fact, throw up when they look at that pattern.
I honestly cannot see how this could go well for Couristan.
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Exhibit: You. There, even worse stupidity, and it's not even prevented!
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However, as previously pointed out my many others here, that carpet pattern need to disappear. In that vein of thought, I say thank you to the carpet company for their attempt at stopping the reproduction of that horrible pattern and potentially saving the eyesight of hundreds (if not thousands) of good folk.
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Quick note though, The Marriot-Marquis is not 'the host hotel', it's 'one of the host hotels'. It's such a big event, that it takes up five (The Marriott, the hyatt, the Hilton, the Sheraton and the Westin) and the Americas Mart was added as a 6th host building this year.
That said, since I was made aware of this last week, I've been doing some digging, and it may be that the company doesn't own the pattern at all. More info when I get it.
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My next committee meeting just got a lot more interesting...
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Easy
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Smart move!
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Make suits and wear them as cosplay? Awesome example of personal use. Making a fabric that is a copy of someone else's design and then selling it? That's profiting from someone else's work.
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Makes me wonder...
Further more, one would also have to ask in what college class do medical student get to practice their surgical skills by lobotomizing the part of the brain responsible for common sense on all Law students...
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Very unlikely. Their customers (hotels) are not going to care if they make legal threats to random convention goers, as long as they leave the hotels out of it. And if they sell to individuals, well hardly any of them would have even heard about this, let alone give a hoot.
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Missed opportunity here
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