Nebraska-based trinket maker Cody Foster wholesales adorable items to boutiques, gift shops, and even bigger retailers like Anthropologie. Their catalog is only visible to their customers. One of those customers noticed a curious resemblance between items in the Cody Foster catalog and items made and sold by prominent (but not too prominent) artists and Etsy sellers. [More]
cease & desist
Abercrombie & Fitch Threatens To Sue Merchants In Hollister, California For Trademark Infringement
By 5.2.09
Taking a page out of Monster Cable’s playbook, Abercrombie & Fitch has threatened to sue merchants in Hollister, California who sell clothes bearing their town’s name. A&F claims that local merchants putting “Hollister” on their clothes will confuse notoriously inept surfers who can’t distinguish between a town and A&F’s Hollister Co. line. So what happens if the locals defy the upscale bully? According to David Cupps, Abercrombie’s general counsel and harasser-in-chief, “If they try, they would get a call and much more.”
Creative Backs Down, Reinstates Spurned Developer
By 4.5.08
Creative Labs heard your chest-beating across the internet and decided to reinstate spurned developer Daniel_K less than a week after booting him from their forums. Unlike Creative, Daniel_K issued drivers that allowed Creative sound cards to work properly under Vista, and even enabled previously crippled features. The drivers were downloaded over 100,000 times. The company thanked the developer by accusing him of “enabling our technology and IP to run on sound cards for which it was not originally offered or intended, [in] effect, stealing our goods.” Even though he has been reinstated, Daniel_K is still pissed.
Creative Sparks Customer Revolt When It Tries To Silence Third-Party Programmer
By 3.31.08
Creative’s executive team will be coming in to quite a mess Monday morning, thanks to its VP of Screw Ups, Phil O’Shaughnessy. Friday morning, he posted a warning on the Creative customer forums that told programmer Daniel_K to stop writing his own drivers for their X-Fi sound cards. The cards still won’t work on Vista over a year after the OS was released, because Creative hasn’t released drivers for them—but by Mr. O’Shaughnessy’s account, Daniel_K is “stealing” from Creative by making the cards work. Then the weekend happened.
