August 2008
Hallmark's Forever Friends Make Peace
Greeting Cards giant Hallmark Cards has announced that it has reached a settlement with retailer Card Factory over an alleged copyright infringement. The alleged infringement related to a number of designs owned by Hallmark including those used on Hallmark’s Forever Friends brand.
A spokesperson for Hallmark said that Card Factory initially denied the infringement. However, after Hallmark issued proceedings, Card Factory have now agreed to remove the cards from sale and pay Hallmark a substantial sum of damages as well a Hallmark’s legal costs.
Briffa’s commentGreeting Cards can be an easy target for copyright infringers. The designs are often fairly simple and easy to analyse and replicate. Additionally the fact that many card designers are small companies means that many of them would not be able to afford to fight actions against infringers. If the designs are fairly generic it can be much more difficult and expensive to show that one card is a copy of another. If the defendant can persuade a court that both designers may have simply arrived at the designs independently then there may be no finding of infringement.
Issuing proceedings can often bring a defendant to the negotiating table. However, litigants with limited funds should be wary of bringing proceedings to early. The costs of drafting and filing proceedings is quite high and if it is done to early the claimant may be less likely to recover some or all of their legal costs.
Card designers and other graphic designer are best advised to keep good records showing when designs were created and where they have been sold or exhibited. These records can act as evidence in any copyright action.
One way to evidence creation of a design is by using a copyright logging service such as the DesignProtect service offered by Briffa. This service also provides access to funds for legal services in the case of infringement.
For more information contact info@briffa.com