Saturday 15 March 2014

"Bizarre" - repost with update!!!

I've just had two emails from Zazzle regarding two items produced from MY original watercolour painting of the Moulin Rouge in Paris..... one product being a magnet and the other a mousepad.

Apparently it infringes Zazzle regulations as someone else has claimed intellectual property rights.  On MY original painting - which I still have at home by the way, and clearly has my signature on the bottom.

Weirdly though, the Zazzle listings of that image on postcards and greeting cards are still listed.  No problems there then.

I've emailed back asking who has claimed intellectual property rights as I'd like to arrange a licensing fee with them and by the way, the painting these products were made from I still have at home and has my signature on it.


UPDATE.
I emailed Zazzle asking who had claimed intellectual property rights and heard back today it was a company called Moulin Rouge S.A.  My initial thought was who the heck are Moulin Rouge S.A.?  Did a google search and it turns out to be the Legal company, based in Belgium, who own the rights to the name of "Moulin Rouge".  It seems, from what I've read, that the words "Moulin Rouge" is a registered trademark in exactly the same way as Pepsi Cola, Campbell Soup, Adidas, Harrods, and so on.  Which, as my painting had been named "Moulin Rouge" would explain why their lawyers had asked for removal of my products from Zazzle bearing that name!!!

I'm now wondering if I changed the name of the painting to "The Red Windmill" and reposted the same picture as postcards/greeting cards/mouse mats/etc on Zazzle, would they still complain?

4 comments:

Linda Dunn said...

Just shaking my head.
I'd definitely rename the works for sale on Zazzle.

jafabrit said...

did you file a dmca notice with zazzle regarding the copyright infringement of your art? they may not remove items just based on your saying so, BUT if you file a dmca notice they are legally obligated to respond and remove infringed items.

Carole Reid said...

Yikes, this kind of stuff makes me crazy! I feel for you and hope you get it all figured out.

Beanie Mouse said...

Well at least all it was, was the removal of a few items off my Zazzle shop and not a lawsuit!!!! I have the original painting on Etsy which I've already renamed, so I'm waiting to see if that gets removed too!! If not, I'll relist the items on Zazzle under The Red Windmill!!!