A student at Leeds College of Art on another course than the one I run made an homage piece based on Mark Newson's Lockheed Lounge-- do a search to see the piece I'm discussing. Mark Newson's organisation found out about it because (and some might say stupidly) the student contacted them and asked for pointers and tips after declaring that his work was intended as an homage, how much he admired Newson's work, blah, blah, blah, and the piece was for his HND at college and for exhibition at his end of year show. It only looked something like Newson's original, was made out of different materials and had different feet and even different colours.
That opened up a whole can of worms. Mark Newson's lawyers were all over it like a bad dose of pox. The piece did not go on exhibition at the end of year show because of legal threats to both the student and the college, and they demanded its destruction after it had been assessed and marked. The piece didn't leave the college until at least two years after the student left, and it may even have been destroyed-- I can't now recall in the end what happened to it.
Many furniture makers plunder the design work of other contemporary designers thoughtlessly and without fear of legal redress, but they should really not do so. Those pillagers of intellectual property will more often than not get away with it because most furniture designer makers are not rich people and cannot pursue the offenders due to lack of funds. However, organisations such as Mark Newson's and other large design houses are very rich indeed and employ or engage big fee lawyers with equally big teeth. Large rich design houses defend their intellectual property vigorously and relentlessly, and have no qualms at all about bankrupting small fry furniture makers with the temerity to infringe what they feel is their rightful property.
So, my advice to the copyists, even the ones that are not out there to make money off the copy, is be careful who you tangle with-- you could end up in deeper doo-doo than you ever thought posssible, and I know an ex-student from about four years ago that will back up every word I've just written.
Personally, I'm not especially fond of people that copy my work, although it can sometimes be mildly flattering even though the copy might show evidence of poor interpretation and/or execution. I do have a special loathing for those that copy my work for money, and I've come across a couple of examples of people doing that. If I'd had enough money at the time to pursue the offenders that copied my work for financial gain, I think I would probably have enjoyed the process of making those copyists' life pure bloody misery for many months or even for a couple or three years just to ensure they'd really got the message, ie, that theft sometimes attracts a painful price somewhere down the line. Slainte.
