

Urban Outfitters rips off indie jewelry designer - jarin
http://imakeshinythings.tumblr.com/post/5855716317/not-cool-urban-outfitters-not-cool

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Pinckney
The assertion is plausible, but the original work doesn't seem obviously novel
or creative enough to conclude that it was clearly copied by UO. Having come
up with the idea: "necklaces with pendants consisting of metal outlines of
states with hearts punched through them," their product is pretty much exactly
what we would expect to see. There is some variation in the manner of
construction, and hearts are punched in different locations (see e.g. New
York).

Even if they copied the idea, it does not appear that there is any legal
recourse, as the idea is not protected by copyright. I'm not very familiar
with copyright as it pertains to art, so I may make some error in separating
idea from execution here.

Note that while copyright law does protect the original work, "A second work,
identical to an earlier copyrighted work, does not infringe, if it is, in
fact, independently created."
<[http://law.unh.edu/thomasfield/ipbasics/copyright-in-
visual-...](http://law.unh.edu/thomasfield/ipbasics/copyright-in-visual-
arts.php) > Thus even if they stamp some of their pendants so as to be
identical to the original works, this is not infringing, so long as the design
is independently created.

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juiceandjuice
Copyright infringement?

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lotusleaf1987
This is shameless and despicable. I'll go out of my way to never buy anything
from them ever again.

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aaronykng
Agreed-- they didn't even bother to change the name. That to me just seems
like the ultimate insult to the designer. After some quick Googling, it looks
like they've been doing this for a while now, too. Definitely never buying
anything from them or their other retail brands again.

