Someone ‘passing off’ our work as theirs – whatwould you do?

[David Rogers]

Are you ABSOLUTELY sure it’s the same van you did & not their ‘version’ of it – a la "they replicated an existing van"…grey area. THEIR van – YOUR design*. Whole thread on copyrights a couple of weeks ago.

Backing up your claim with photos (from your portfolio) or a note of the reg. on your invoice.

Otherwise, don’t sweat it…your work is obviously good enough for them to be wishing they could have done it.

You’ve done the polite version – call & email…spend your £30 for a small claims court…but probably more hassle than it’s worth other than just the satisfaction of making them remove it.

Email their ‘webmaster’ if they have one as many companies don’t administer their own sites.

And check their site for disclaimers – if they state ‘that work shown is indicative of the type we produce’ then there legally is not an issue as they make no claim that it IS theirs…just that they can do it…and who owns the ‘image’ – *did you sell on the copyright by charging for artwork? Loads of things to consider before getting in the heavies!

Dave

[Shane Drew]

I’d agree with Dave here. Damned annoying, but you need some pretty good proof before taking it further with any threats.

They may not have answered your email as they *know* they did that particular van. Replicating a van is not a crime, we all do it I guess.

But, if you can prove you’d done it, I would, for the sack of the exercise, invest in a legal letter. No harm in letting them know you are not a push over. If they’ve done it to you, they’ve probably done it to others.

You’d be doing everyone a favour.

Its also no good making a threat and not following through, because they will think you are a push over, and you’ll lose credibility.

[Chris Windebank]

I had this before but turned out there was a change of telephone number that another company did and then advertised on their website which I guess they can do as they did some work. Be absolutely sure before sending them a letter

[David McDonald]

Hi

Some good thoughts on the subject. I have no doubts it is ours and the company has not even replied to my verbal or e-mail complaints – not even any sort of denial. Also there is no ‘representative work’ type disclaimer.

Cheers
Macky

[Peter Mindham]

Send Andy Gorman over to sort them out 😕

Peter

[Kimberley Edwards]

How about having a picture of it on your own website with a little blurb under it that says something on the lines of "our competitors liked this design enough to put a picture of it on their own website."

[Jill Marie Welsh]

I would send Cousin Guido around with a Molotov cocktail.
(hot)
(not really)
Have a lawyer write to them telling them to cease and desist.
Love…Jill

[Martin Cole]

quote Kimberley Edwards:

How about having a picture of it on your own website with a little blurb under it that says something on the lines of “our competitors liked this design enough to put a picture of it on their own website.”

That’s very good Kimberly, that’s a good realistic idea.

Otherwise £200 plus expenses and I’ll sort it for you Macky 😀

[Andy Gorman]

Yeah, send me over to sort it out. The thieving bastards.

[JamieX]

The small claims court is good if you want the other company to act and take down the picture as it shows you are willing to take it down further.

We had the same issue a couple of weeks back with a client who was happy enough with a job to give us a cheque and then later in the day say we should have done more and cancelled the cheque. Basically he thought he could rip us off.

I took it further and took it to small claims and he paid the full amount before the set date. Can be a headache the first time around but it was well worth the lesson and we didn’t let him get away with it.

[Jon Marshall]

quote Chris Windebank:

I had this before but turned out there was a change of telephone number that another company did and then advertised on their website which I guess they can do as they did some work. Be absolutely sure before sending them a letter

Yes, we had that aswell.

[David Crocker]

I recently used small claims court to get a customer to cough up – worked a treat 🙂

—-

As for your design on a competitors website, "they say" imitation is the best form of flattery 🙂 I’d be proud first lol, then get even 👿

I’d get a stooge customer to call up regarding the various designs on offer, eventually asking about your design and if they could send some hard copies for you/the stooge to look at. When "you" 😉 get the designs, scrutinise it to make sure it’s 100% yours and if so hit them with a letter stipulating copyright infringement. If you have the original design still on your PC, the original invoice to the customer and hopefully the original customer to back you up that you did the design, he hasn’t got a leg to stand on. But it has to be your design that he’s copied – outright.

But beware…

I had a massive argument/discussion with Umbro (sportswear) about a design I did for a canvas which was Steven Gerrard in an England shirt. Umbro own the copyright for the shirt because they make them (duh) but my design and the fact that the Umbro badge wasn’t fully prominent as Umbro and that the 3 lions crest was also non-recognisable as such – I won my argument/slightly heated discussion.

If my design was a direct copy or at least something like 80% of the original, then I would’ve been in copyright land – bad times. However, the fact that my design didn’t resemble the diamond logo of Umbro or the 3 lions of the England Crest (owned by the F.A.), I wasn’t in trouble – good times. The angle Umbro were coming from was that the design was recognisable as an England shirt even though the Umbro triangle logo was just a blob and the 3 lions was also a blob – thus making it a copyright infringement through the notion that the design was of an England player – wearing an England top – thus I have crossed the barrier and I should be fined £1500! An idea of what the design looked like for those interested would be the "cut out" and the "threshold" effect in Photoshop. (you’ll know what I mean 😕 )
If you can prove it’s 100% yours then go for it full hog. But really, all they’re gonna do is remove it from the site – unless its a generic design you’ve done that can be changed for other customers (like a template design), if so then you can sue ’em for lost royalties and copyright infringement. A customer of mine (a photographer) recently had a case where his copyrighted photos were being "put on canvas" by Tesco! He asked his solicitor about suing Tesco’s for copyright infringement and was told that even if he won the case, all he could do was to claim back the price of whatever the canvas was, so basically it’s really not worth taking Tesco to court for £50 (I refer back to my point with Umbro and the fact that I didn’t actually sell any of the designs, therefore Umbro wern’t out of pocket. If I had made money then Umbro were entitled to royalties + I would’ve been done if it was proved I had directly copied the logo). My point is that even though you’re not taking on Tesco’s, if the guy has directly financially benefited from your work – then your entitled to a slice of the cash he took (like if I profited from selling a bloody canvas for £30 of Steven Gerrard and Umbro want a piece! I ask you!)

Intriguing scenario you have there, I’d play it to the end, even if you have to goto the place as the stooge customer and put the guy on the bloody spot 🙂 :):)

Good luck
Dave.

p.s. the poormans way to copyright is to keep a hard copy of the design and pop it in a Jiffy bag – and then send it to yourself as a recorded package – but never open it! This will hold some weight if it ever goes to court. But of course if it ever gets that far, you gotta be 100% sure it’s yours and that he’s ripped you off. and also…if it gets that far, he’s either silly stupid ooooorrrrrr you got it wrong! eek! [/i]

[Karl Williams]

A few years ago the local Sign-a-rama guy went round putting his stickers on other sign co’s work including mine. A furious phone row took place and then a couple of us made a visit. He does not make signs for sign-a-rama any more. 😉

[Lorraine Burke]

Did you make note of the van reg when you did the job?
If its a repeat job i find this helps to keep record and proof you did that particular model.

[Steve Bird11]

Interesting stuff. The ice cream man will be round soon, I’ll ask him for some mafia numbers if you like.lol Moving back to David’s reply about umbro…Isn’t there is some sort of loophole with regards to the Gerrard picture,…but only if you actually took the photo yourself and didn’t profit from it….So I’m sure you printed it for yourself and it got stolen at one your exhibitions right? nudge nudge.

[Lee Attewell]

Ring him up…Book in two vehicles for sign work…Don’t show up on the day 😀

[Dave Harrison]

quote :

What would you do?

David. . I reckon Kimberly’s Idea is spot on. . . ! ! Personally I’d call them just as you have done, I’d let them know they’ve been rumbled. I’d probably call them cheeky B@stards and offer my freelance design services at a premium hourly rate next time they get lost for ideas ! !
Seriously, if this is a one off then be flattered and move on concentrating your valuable time an effort on more productive things like making money !

If you find they or anyone else starts making a habit of it, then yes you need to get the legal people involved.

Regards

Dave 🙂

[Adam Triggs]

Hi David,

I has something similar and went to the local press, Got a free half page spread on our company about the good work we do and slagged off the company who didn’t respond.

Impact – Free advert
Reaction – They disappeared
Cost – Nothing

The local small press love a story like this…….Just play it cool 😎

Cheers
Adam

[Steve Morgan]

I’ve just looked on this site and found a simple answer to the problem of someone nicking your pics.
Not entirely secure but it would certainly make re-use of an image a bit more challenging. It does of course require Photoshop

http://www.photoanswers.co.uk/Video-Tut … R=EPI-2191