The bittersweet truth about intellectual property
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Comments (8)
Tim Anderson
27 Nov 2023Another great article Dominique. It took someone who wasn’t even born then to teach a 60s music fanatic something new about the music of his time
Dominique
27 Nov 2023Hi there Tim,
thanks so much for your comment! I’m glad you enjoyed the article – and I hope it inspired you to go blow the dust off those Rolling Stones records and give them a spin!
MJB
27 Nov 2023Hi Dominique, an insightful analysis of this retail debate. IP law is as complicated as law regarding psychopathy and criminal liability. Copyright is an intellectual esoteric(?) matter which is tough to decipher. Woollies are also evil in stealing IP, another matter. And the IP copyright law is quite a mess, a spiderweb. I’m under a no discloser agreement but I can share this in short form. Some years ago I produced a tv documentary that was broadcast to 365 million household globally. That’s big by any standards. An academic consultant accused us/me of plagiarizing his thesis. At the time we really didn’t have any expert judges on IP matters, it was complicated. I have 2 legal degrees, trained as a concert pianist on the side and an art collector. So I respect your processional realm. And you write well! But as a half-legal person I keep impeccable records. I could feed the fire of the case. R3 million later we were in the High Court. Legal team didn’t want me to attend the trial. OK. I was scheduled as witness for last day. Two days before that the team called me and said the applicant had resigned the case. They were liable for all costs though those dont represent real costs.
Of course PnP will challenge. There’s a brand at stake. I think they cheated as cleverably as possible. I hope they lose. I respect IP.. Cheers!
Dominique
27 Nov 2023Hello MJB!
Thanks so much for your comment. As an artist I’m generally quite invested in the value of ideas, and I’ve known about what happened to The Verve for some time now. All it took was last week’s headlines to remind me of how complicated things can get when people start fighting over who had an idea first!
Personally, I admire The Verve for even going to court on this, instead of just letting the song die a quiet death. If I had to go toe-to-toe with legal representation for a band as big (and worth as much money) as the Stones, I certainly would have made a different choice.
As for PnP’s appeal – it’s a hard thing to prove, and I think the odds are stacked against them. Yes they do have a history with navy blue and there are only so many colours available, but it just doesn’t look good. Not helped of course by the fact that one of their designers admitted that Forage and Feast was one of the “aspirational brands” that they looked at when brainstorming the design.
I’ll be following that story with close attention!
Johan van der Merwe
27 Nov 2023I just love this lady’s writings. So well researched on the intricacies of current topics and so nicely presented. Not actionable information but a not to be missed pleasurable read that always brings a smile and a happy feeling for having read it. Thanks for writing it and thanks to the ghost for publishing it
Dominique
27 Nov 2023Thanks so much for reading Johan, I’m really happy that you’re learning something here and enjoying it too!
Vilashni Vandayar
28 Nov 2023A very well written and insightful article, great for brands that are struggling with cheaper competitive products entering their space and pushing the IP boundaries a bit too far.
Dominique
28 Nov 2023Thank you so much for commenting Vilashni! Sometimes we all just need a reminder that ideas are what brands are built on, right?