Belgian woodcarver gets Zara to the knees | Zara Home Inditex Brussels | Belgian (Limburger) beats ZARA in plagiarism case

Left the work of Patrick Damiaens - Right the candle of Zara home

Belgian woodcarver gets Zara to the knees.

Newspaper article published on July 5, 2017

With permission from DE TIJD, Belgian business and financial newspaper

Translation Lis Alvar R,
In the original article, the author Ben Serrure speaks about the Limburger (as a person), this has changed to Belgian. Explication: Limburg is a province of Belgium.

According to the Brussels Courts of Commerce, the chain of stores Zara Home has copied a design of the ornamental woodcarver Patrick Damiaens without any hesitation.

Patrick Damiaens fell of the chair when he received a call from Paris in 2014. A friend of the Belgian (Limburg) woodcarver was surprised with a decorated candle while shopping in the furniture chain Zara Home. Nothing special itself. The design of the candle was like “two drops” to the design that Damiaens had made two years earlier.

Specifically, it was a family shield that Damiaens had carved on behalf of the Dutch family Odink. The family wanted a 3D version of the recently updated coat of arms, and knocked to the door of the Belgian (Limburg), a famous name in the world of heraldic art. After the assignment was completed, Damiaens placed a picture of the result on his website and began working on other work.

Great was his surprise when, after the call, his job was found in the Antwerp branch of Zara Home, daughter of Inditex, one of the world's most valuable companies. Damiaens did not agree with it, and, along with client Odink, hired a lawyer.

On the cover of De Tijd

Belgian (Limburger) beats ZARA in plagiarism case

Belgian woodcarver forces billion company ZARA on the knees

Sales ban

With result. The Brussels court of commerce ruled that Odink did not, but Damiaens could have copyrighted the design, and that Zara Home had committed infringements by placing the candles on the market. The court therefore condemns Zara Home to pay a compensation and a ban on the future sales of the decorative candles, which had already been taken out of business.

The verdict and, consequently, the compensation payable, by the territorial jurisdiction of the court, relate only to the candles sold in Belgium, attorney Dieter Delarue, who acted for Damiaens in the case, explained. But the verdict is a good starting point for further actions. For example, the Limburger now has a starting point to proceed against Zara in Spain, where the ban and the compensation could then be extended to all of Europe.

Zara can still appeal. The company is currently considering any further steps, let attorney Jef Keustermans know.

David vs Goliath

It's by no means the first time that small designers or artists are being copied by fast retailers like Zara. Zara was already under fire for copying small designers, while a company like H & M is regularly accused of plagiarism.

Recently, Belgian lingerie designer Muriel Scherre of La Fille d'O sounded the bell after H & M put a bra in the shelf that looked like a design of her. Scherre said that she did not wanted to proceed, because she thought she had little chances to win against "Goliath" as H & M.

That is why this sentence is so important, Delarue believes. "It is a unique precedent in the sense that it may be the first time that a fast retailer is convicted by a court for something like this, far beyond Belgium.

Elsewhere and earlier, often with symbolic outrage actions via social or regular media. They are of course useful, but they will also be over by time. The Zara's of this world also know that, which makes them seldom impressed and therefore does not give a proper result. Now, of course, they cannot do anything else. "

Sharp

It is apparent that the court in the sentence expresses Zara's conduct explicitly and in strict terms. Answers to the argument of Zara Home's that a friend of Damiaens was required to recognize the design, the court writes the following:

'This reflects Zara Home's approach and attitude in the design and production of the concerned candle: an interesting and existing design that does not have a prominent general reputation may be applied to the goods in question with a view to the optimization/increase of sales and without any acknowledgment of the person who created that work through his own intellectual input. '

"It is precisely the attractiveness to the consumer that Zara Home has put in place to reproduce exactly the work of Mr. Damiaens and not to choose another design," the court continues. 'A clearer proof of the banalization of the sculpture of Mr. Damiaens cannot be offer.'

https://www.patrickdamiaens.info

Tallador de madera de Limburgo pone a Zara de rodillas | Zara Home Inditex Bruselas | Plagio Zara Home

Tallador de madera de Limburgo pone a Zara de rodillas.

Tallador de madera de Limburgo pone a Zara de rodillas.

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Artículo del "De Tijd" 5 de Julio 2017.

Publicado en este blog con la aprobación del periódico "De Tijd"/Ben Serrure

El periódico "De Tijd" es el diario financiero y de negocios de Bélgica.

Traducción: Lis Alvar R

Según el Tribunal de Comercio de Bruselas, la cadena de tiendas Zara Home ha copiado -sin ninguna duda- el diseño del escultor ornamental Patrick Damiaens.

Patrick Damiaens se fue de espaldas cuando recibió una llamada de París en 2014. Un amigo del escultor de Limburgo se sorprendió al ver una vela decorada mientras compraba en la cadena de muebles Zara Home. Una vela nada especial en sí. Pero el diseño de la vela era como "dos gotas de agua" al diseño que Damiaens había hecho dos años antes.

Específicamente, era un escudo de familia que Damiaens había tallado a nombre de la familia holandesa Odink. La familia quería una versión 3D de su escudo de armas que recientemente había sido actualizado, y llamó a la puerta del escultor, un nombre famoso en el mundo del arte heráldico. Después de que la asignación fue terminada, Damiaens colocó una imagen del resultado en su Web-site y comenzó a trabajar en otro trabajo.

Grande fue su sorpresa cuando, después de la llamada, su trabajo fue encontrado en la sucursal de Amberes de Zara Home (hija de Inditex), una de las compañías más valiosas del mundo. Damiaens no estaba de acuerdo con el uso de su diseño, y, junto con su cliente Odink, contrató a un abogado.

En la portada del "De Tijd"

Artista de Limburgo noquea a Zara en caso de plagio.

Artista de la talla de madera de Limburgo 

fuerza a ponerse de rodillas al negocio multimillonario Zara.

Prohibición de ventas

Con resultado. El Tribunal de Comercio de Bruselas decidió que Odink no, pero Damiaens si podría haber registrado el diseño, y que Zara Home había cometido infracciones colocando las velas en el mercado. Por lo tanto, el tribunal condeno a Zara Home a pagar una indemnización y una prohibición de las ventas futuras de las velas decorativas, la cual ya había sida retirada del mercado.

El veredicto y, en consecuencia, la indemnización por la jurisdicción territorial del tribunal, se refieren únicamente a las velas vendidas en Bélgica, explicó el abogado Dieter Delarue, que actuó en nombre de Damiaens en el caso. Pero el veredicto es un buen punto de partida para nuevas acciones. Por ejemplo, el escultor de Limburgo tiene ahora un punto de partida para proceder en contra Zara en España, donde la prohibición y la compensación podrían extenderse a toda Europa.

Zara todavía puede apelar. Por el momento la compañía está considerando cualquier otro paso a seguir, informo el abogado Jef Keustermans.

David vs Goliath

No es de ninguna manera la primera vez que pequeños diseñadores o artistas están siendo copiados por los minoristas rápidos como Zara. Zara ya estaba bajo el fuego por copiar pequeños diseñadores, mientras que una compañía como H & M es acusada regularmente de plagio

Recientemente, la diseñadora de lencería belga Muriel Scherre de La Fille d'O sonó la campana después de que H & M puso un sujetador en el estante que parecía un diseño de ella. Scherre dijo que no quería continuar, porque creía que tenía pocas posibilidades de ganar contra un "Goliath" como H & M.

Es por eso por lo que esta sentencia es tan importante, considera Delarue. "Es un precedente único en el sentido de que puede ser la primera vez que un minorista rápido es condenado por un tribunal por algo como esto, mucho más allá de Bélgica”.

En otras partes y antes, a menudo con acciones de indignación simbólica a través de medios sociales o regulares. Por supuesto, son útiles, pero también se acabarán con el tiempo. Los Zara de este mundo también saben eso, lo que los hace raramente impresionados y por lo tanto no dan un resultado apropiado. Ahora, por supuesto, no pueden hacer nada más".

Una Infracción de Derecho de Autor |  Zara Home Inditex

Agudo

Es evidente que el tribunal en la sentencia expresa el comportamiento de Zara explícitamente y en términos estrictos. Respuestas al argumento de Zara Home es que un amigo de Damiaens estaba obligado a reconocer el diseño, el tribunal escribe lo siguiente:

"Esto refleja el enfoque y la actitud de Zara Home en el diseño y la producción de la vela en cuestión: un diseño interesante y existente que no tiene una reputación general prominente puede aplicarse a los productos en cuestión con vistas a la optimización / aumento de ventas y sin ningún reconocimiento de la persona que creó esa obra a través de su propio aporte intelectual’.

"Es precisamente el atractivo para el consumidor que Zara Home ha puesto en marcha para reproducir exactamente el trabajo del Sr. Damiaens y no elegir otro diseño", continúa la corte. "No se puede ofrecer una prueba más clara de la banalización de la escultura del señor Damiaens".

https://www.patrickdamiaens.info

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Zara Home Convicted for Plagiarism – Decision of Brussels Court in case Damiaens - Odink vs. Zara Home

Zara Home Candle |  Damiaens - Odink vs. Zara Home 

To Whom it May Concern: 

Zara Home Convicted for Plagiarism – Decision of Brussels Court in case Damiaens - Odink vs. Zara Home 

The purpose of this press release/statement is to allow my clients to manage, streamline and react to the numerous requests for interviews that have come their way following the decision of the Brussels Court in the matter of Damiaens - Odink vs. Zara Home.

 The decision is attached to this e-mail, and summarized below. This statement also includes a couple of quotes from the decision, and subsequent remarks from the claimants and their lawyer. We politely ask you to direct any further questions you may have to Dieter Delarue via dieter@vaninnis-delarue.be. Thank you. 

 Summary of the decision – quote:

 The Brussels Court held that, while that is not the case for the original family coat of arms, the adaptation (wood carved sculpture) made of it by mr Patrick Damiaens is an original work of art and thus protected by copyright. The Brussels Court further held that by reproducing the sculpture onto a carved candle sold online and in Zara Home stores, without the artist’s permission, Zara Home infringed this copyright. 

 The Brussels Court ordered Zara Home to stop selling the candles (Zara Home had already pulled back the applicable candles), and convicted Zara Home to pay damages and legal costs, and to publish the decision in the “Heraldisch Tijdschrift”, a periodical focused on heraldic art. 

 Reflecting on Zara's typical modus operandi, the Brussels Court stated the following: "this clearly illustrates the intentions and attitude of Zara Home when designing and producing the candle: a commercially interesting and existing design, of not too much renown, is reproduced on the applicable goods in order to optimize sales without any recognition of the person who actually created the work and whose personality the work reflects."  

Statement by Dieter Delarue (lawyer for Patrick Damiaens and Mervyn Odink) 

 “As a copyright lawyer and a true advocate for the protection of innovation and creativity, it has always struck me that, no matter how strong and noisy the media campaigns against these practices were, in the end they faded away and the retailers went on and copied further. The retailers have always assumed that smaller designers or artist would be bluffed away, or would not persist in enforcing their rights. I hope that this decision, probably the first of its kind, even worldwide, can serve as a turning point in that respect, and that it may give courage to other designers or artists that are in the same boat.

 Statement by Patrick Damiaens (claimant 1):

 “I am very happy with the result. Two long years of persistence finally paid off. Zara Home found images of my sculpture online (probably on my blog), copied my work on one of its products and sold the product all over the world, without asking my permission. And then, when asked for an explanation two years ago, they simply waived the expression of my concern and feeling of disrespect away. They even threatened with a law suit for slander. I felt insulted and was too stubborn to let things go just like that.“

Statement by Mervyn Odink (claimant 2):
“To a certain extent I am happy with the end result: that Zara Home did not get away with what it did and that it has to realize that respect for third parties’ intellectual property rights is something that they need to show, too, no matter how big they are. I am disappointed, however, to the extent that the court has held that the original family coat or arms is not protected by copyright, because the creation of a work like this is in part the result of pre-defined choices or the combination of existing elements. We do not agree with this point of view”. 

https://www.patrickdamiaens.info

Did ZARA HOME commit plagiarism? | Inditex | A Candle from Zara Home | A constatation in some branches of ZARA HOME

A constatation in some branches of ZARA HOME

THE NEW STYLE ACCORDING TO ZARA

 

“Taken from the internet”

Did ZARA HOME commit plagiarism?

From the newspaper 

'Het Belang van Limburg' (Belgium) 11 may 2015

by Gunter willekens

Maaseik (Belgium)– Last year, Zara Home, the furniture store which is part of the world-renowned retail fashion chain INDITEX (Better know as ZARA), possibly sold thousands of candles bearing a decoration that very closely resembles a work of art by the hand of Patrick Damiaens, a woodcarver from Maaseik. “We just happened to stumble upon it. The designers at Zara, most likely just copied my work from the internet”, Damiaens says. “Without even asking! At the very least, I demand an apology.”

Patrick Damiaens creates coats of arms and ornaments for customers around the world. He’s a well-known and respected name in the world of heraldic art, and is considered one of the greats. On 27 December 2014 he received a phone call from a French admirer asking him if he knew about Zara Home using one of his designs as decoration for a line of candles.

Damiaens headed over to the Antwerp branch of Zara Home to take a closer look at this infamous candle. “There’s no doubt about it”, he says. “The candle unmistakably bears the coat of arms that I had designed and carved for a Dutch customer back in 2012. Mind you, it isn’t an exact copy. It’s virtually impossible to recreate in candle wax. It is, however, almost identical.”

“For an outsider, all coats of arms may look alike, but because of the different combinations of numbers and letters, helmets, crests and necklaces etc. there are literally tens of millions of possible variations. It’s easier to win Euromillions than it is to accidentally create the same design.”

The branch of ZARA HOME where I bought the candles

A constatation in some branches of ZARA HOME (Inditex)

Copy/paste

Patrick is in the habit of posting pictures of his work on the internet. The designers at Zara Home were probably scouring the internet for some inspiration for a design to put on the candle and simply decided to copy/paste one of his designs. “The depiction on the candle is without a shred of doubt based on my drawing, which was later used by Patrick to create a woodcarving. 

But nobody asked for my permission either”, heraldic artist Nagtegaal confirms. “One might think that copyright doesn’t apply to coats of arms, because they’re so old”, Odink, the owner of the copied coat of arms, says. “My family’s original coat of arms dates back to the seventeenth century. 

But this is a contemporary version, completely authentic. I commissioned Damiaens to create it two years ago. As a customer, I was actively involved in the creation process and it was all quite expensive and rather time-consuming to have it made and registered as well. How on earth is it possible for a multinational to use it for commercial purposes without my permission? This just isn’t right.”

Did ZARA HOME commit plagiarism?

Discussion

In the beginning of January, Odink and Damiaens sent a registered letter to Inditex, the parent company of Zara Home. “Believe it or not”, Patrick says, “but one day after our letters had arrived, all candles were removed from Zara Home websites across the world. Very impressive.”

Zara Home claimed, though, that one thing had nothing to do with the other. Nevertheless, all candles were removed from all Belgian and Dutch stores as well. “Just to avoid any discussion with you”, Zara Home explained in a letter to Patrick Damiaens.

“Zara Home categorically denies having made an error”, Patrick says. “They claim my work isn’t copyright protected and furthermore maintain that they never used my version of the coat of arms. They somehow, unwittingly, managed to create an exact copy. They must be joking!”

Seeing as the candle was sold for 16 euros and the production costs amount to only a few euros at the most, Zara Home, with its hundreds of shops in dozens of countries around the world and a web shop that caters globally on top of that, probably managed to squeeze quite a bit of money out of the whole deal. 

“How much? We can only guess”, Patrick says. “But Zara’s money doesn’t interest me. All I want from them is an apology or an admission of guilt. To use someone else’s design to make some money, how distasteful is that?”

Silence gives consent

One day after Patrick Damiaens had contacted Zara Home, all designs were removed from websites across the globe. At the same time all candles were taken out of stores worldwide. “But ten days after we confronted Zara Home, we still hadn’t received an answer. 

Even though we called and e-mailed the company at least twice a day, among other things to ask Zara Home if they were aware they were plagiarizing, adding the Flemish saying ‘Zwijgen is toestemmen’ (silence gives consent).”

PLAGIARISM?

The conflict between Patrick Damiaens and Zara Home is reminiscent of the case of Luc Tuymans, earlier this year. The famous Belgian painter based his painting ‘A Belgian Politician’ on a picture of Jean-Marie Dedecker taken by Katrijn Van Giel, photographer for De Standaard. The county court in Antwerp decided that the world-renowned artist had committed plagiarism and ordered him to pay damages in the amount of 500.000 euros per reproduction. Tuymans decided to lodge an appeal against this decision.

Katrijn van Giel was defended by Antwerp barrister Dieter Delarue, who is slightly disinclined to utter the word plagiarism, “because this word is nowhere to be found in copyright law”, Delarue argues. “What we can say is that placing the design on the candle and the subsequent sale of the candle constitutes copyright infringement. After all, the design on the candle is a reproduction or at the very least an adaptation of the original drawing of the woodcarving. 

In order to make such a reproduction or adaptation, it is mandatory to ask for prior permission from the artist who created the original artwork. The fact is, the latter has the exclusive right to reproduce, adapt, exhibit and distribute through sale or otherwise his or her own work. If one does not ask for permission before reproduction, we can speak of a violation of the artist’s rights.”

Arguably, there is little to no doubt that the artists of the original drawing/woodcarving can call Zara to account for their actions. Delarue doesn’t give a definite answer when it comes to a possible compensation. “The nature and size of the claim depend on the client. If a client wishes to be financially compensated, reasonable royalties, i.e. the compensation one would have received if agreements had been made, are taken into account for this type of violation.”

 ©Translation Dennis Hermans

Did ZARA HOME (Inditex) commit plagiarism?

https://www.patrickdamiaens.info

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