Copying crisis rages as Five Dollar Shake, Dean Morris and Bold & Bright share views
The extent of the blatant copying of so many card publishers’ designs on the Temu online platform is truly shocking and the Chinese marketplace is set to be taken to taken to task by the greeting card industry in a meeting next week.
Thortful MD Pip Heywood has instigated the online meeting in support of the many artists and publishers who sell through the UK-based marketplace, but find Temu sellers are stealing their designs.
Although not the only culprit, the sheer scale of the Temu plagiarism issue for greeting card publishers has prompted the move, with Pip to be joined on the call by the GCA’s CEO Amanda Fergusson, and GCA council member Brett Smith, co-owner and md of Emotional Rescue.
“A couple of members of the government’s Intellectual Property Office will also be on the call as well,” Pip told PG Buzz, explaining that she has a list of questions ready to put to Temu regarding its processes for identifying and preventing copyright infringement before content goes live, how its plans to penalise repeat offenders as well as the escalation process if the issue continues.
She also intends asking for long-term commitments, including echoing the GCA’s push to remove the greeting card category entirely from its platform until some sense of fairness is reached, collaborating proactively with the GCA to prevent copying, and considering a pre-approval system for designs in high-risk categories.
This is the latest move in the battle against the copycats who continually rip off designs wholesale, which disproportionately affects small publishers as they don’t have the staffing levels or finances to tackle the issue.
Despite legal pressure from McDaniels Law and Thortful, and with the BBC and government also alerted to the issue, the widespread design theft rages on, as the publishers’ confrontation with Chinese marketplace Temu at Spring Fair a few days ago testifies.
PG Buzz has been flagging the issue in recent months, and retail entrepreneur and former TV Dragon Theo Paphitis has also demanded action from the government, so, in the first of a series, publishers Five Dollar Shake, Bold & Bright and Dean Morris Cards vent their anger over the sheer volume of plagiarism plaguing the greeting cards sector…
Matt Genower, managing director of Five Dollar Shake
“I blame Oscar Wilde and his bloody imitation is a compliment quote! There’s a fine line between influenced by and copied. We wouldn’t be human if our creations weren’t influenced from somewhere but it’s from where we are influenced that bothers me.
“The reason it’s particularly prevalent in our industry is because so many of us occupy the same retail selling space. I’d love to know what the designers of the catwalk Prada dresses think when a version of it ends up seven weeks later in a Zara store. Does it dent the sales of the high fashion item? Does Zara so desperately really need that bloody print! The massive difference is the two brands occupy totally different retail spaces and completely different consumers.
“I’d love to say it’s the same in greeting cards, but it’s just not. One way or another we’re mostly challenging for similar space in High Streets around the country where consumers are just looking for a pretty/funny/inspirational card.”
Your suffering: “Years ago we found our illustrations all over a collection of Primark knickers! Why on earth a designer somewhere on the planet thought our birthday card illustrations suited a range of underwear, God only knows. In truth we were too busy to take the matter further. We should have because it’s not okay to imitate, let alone blatantly lift an illustration.
“Closer to home, yes we’ve often thought our designs have been mimicked on other greeting cards. They’re always inferior in so many ways and, anyhow, does a fellow publisher know the designs will be anything like a bestseller? In other words, don’t bother. You’ll sleep better at night if you don’t!
“Lastly, in an ideal world, buyers would firstly recognise the blatant copies and secondly take a stand and not buy them. Fortunately, there are retailers who are really on it and this is what they do. But. if the last 25 years of our experience is anything to go by, this is not the majority.”
Any signs of hope? “In the early noughties, there seemed to be much more industry chat about plagiarism, calling out the guilty publishers. I’m not sure why we’re not having the same conversations again. I think if this chatter became louder, maybe just maybe there’d be less blatant stealing, ’cos that’s what it is!”
Thea Musselwhite, founder of Bold & Bright
“It’s incredibly frustrating as a designer to see your designs ripped off and put on such cheap sites such as Temu and Shein – I couldn’t believe how many of my cards I found on Temu after a very short search.
“It’s soul destroying as you feel like there’s not much you can do against such big companies. So, I feel very grateful that McDaniel’s Law was keen to take us on as a case study, to help other designers with this issue. Any time I see my designs ripped off is frustrating but particularly so when such a global organisation is doing it!”
Your suffering: “I’ve had other smaller companies copy or be ‘inspired’ by my designs. Thankfully, in cases when they’re on sites such as Thortful, I’ve notified them, and they’ve taken the designs down from the copycats. I’m very grateful to Thortful for acting so promptly on these rare occasions. I guess as my cards have a unique style it’s harder for companies to copy – but they do, they just do it in their own style.”
Any signs of hope? “It’s been brilliant how much PG and PG Buzz have covered this topic, it will make a big difference to the industry if more people try to do something about it.
“I do, sadly, feel these copying issues are going to keep happening. There are always going to be companies like Temu coming on the scene, who will probably do all this again.
“I think all that designers can do is complain to them loudly, and not make it easy for them to get away with it. And templates created by law firms such as McDaniel’s Law are really helpful, as it will give designers the confidence to feel that someone legal has their back, and they aren’t just doing it on their own.”
Dean Morris, founder of Dean Morris Cards
“Copying in the card sector is definitely more prevalent than it was even 10 years ago. Is this because we’re all posting on social media now and the wonderful products our industry produces have large audiences and anybody thinks they can do the same?
“In the greeting card industry there are always going to be established themes and even phrases that are fair game for anyone to use because they’re so ubiquitous – show me a publisher that hasn’t done a card with ‘old enough to know better, young enough to xxx’.
“What is becoming more commonplace, though, is simply copying the exact design of the card but always in a much less considered way or, as is the case with Temu, just copying and pasting our designs on to theirs. There’s a special place in hell for people that do that!”
Your suffering: “I’ve had my designs copied several times, from outfits in the UK and on Temu and Shein. If it’s a one-off and, especially if their interpretation of my design is so embarrassingly bad, I will do my best to take appropriate action to stop them. Sometimes it works, but sometimes I simply don’t have the time, energy or the need for that much negativity in my life.
“Many publishers are very small businesses and we simply don’t have the people or resources to counteract all these. This is especially the case with Temu and Shein where often as you stop one copy another will pop up straight after.”
Any signs of hope? “Sadly, I don’t think there is. I’d be very surprised if Temu and Shein really care. They’ll just deny responsibility, claiming they’re unaware of what Hello Guigui – clearly a fan of Dean Morris Cards – in Haikou is doing.”
These views appeared in the December issue of Progressive Greetings which can be read online here.
