To think nobody owns standard phrases about parenting?

[jamoncrumpets]

There's been a lot of kerfuffle on Instagram recently about large companies stealing designs from smaller brands.

Scamp and Dude had their 'A superhero has my back' caption pinched by ASDA.

Mre. Souer was ripped off by Old Navy with their new 'Raising the Future' t shirt.

Now there's a bit of a kerfuffle about GIRLvsCANCER and Monki borrowing from their nipple motif designs.

AIBU to think that (with the exception of Mre. Souer, who seems to have had both caption AND design ripped off) nobody actually really owns these captions or designs and that unless they are trademarked up to the hilt then they're fair game for the big retailers? The only design element that I can see in many is use of fonts. How can you patent that?!

I'm just thinking could I write 'Mothering like a motherf**cker' on a t shirt in a bold font and VOILA, I have a brand?! And then if GAP or whoever decide they want to use that caption too I can sue their arses off?

Pretty much yes that’s how intellectual property works. You could write that on a t shirt and then sue any company that tried to use it as long as it was your original
Work and clearly identifiable as yours. Why should small businesses be ripped off for their ideas by big businesses. It’s their work they deserve paying for it.

But surely a phrase like 'raising the future' can't belong to anybody?

Simple phrases and slogans are not covered under the 1988 Act, I don’t think. But the imagery and design would be.

the Scamp and Dude one was a very obvious copy and it's really
not fair to copy someone else's work and then just sell it as your own.

It might only be a phrase but if you've spent years establishing your brand and used a quote in a certain font with a design and a big company just copied it and then sold thousands then it's not fair

especially as the Scamp and Dude one had such a lovely and personal meaning behind it

It matters more that you can afford to enforce your trademark or slogan.

My bil worked for a company which produced a product named nearly the same as a company bought by Disney. Disney sent his company a cease and desist letter, even though they used the name first. They could not afford to defend themselves in court against such a big company so they changed the name they were using, even though they had every legal right to keep it.

I am not condoning the ripping off at all, I'm just saying that if your whole design pretty much stretches to just a font then how can you claim that as intellectual property?

Like I said ^ they can’t. If it is just the phrasing it wouldn’t be copyrighted unless they took out their own trademark. If the design is a clear rip off then they may have grounds for infringement under the 1988 act.

I'm just thinking could I write 'Mothering like a motherf*cker' on a t shirt in a bold font and VOILA, I have a brand?

Dont quote ne on this but i think some one might hace already beat you to this.

The thing is look how phases become more than phases they become ways to identify the company "the futures bright" is just a normal phase like raising the future, to a whole lot of people the futures bright is linked to a certian mobile phone company. In fact i believe it was trade marked

I believe the "the holidays are coming" is also trademarked isnt it?
I think every little helps is also trademarked because now if some one says it you know exactly which brand people are talking about.

So if you built up a brand invested axlot of money in mothering like a motherf*ker people were going around going oh jave you seen my motherf*king top, and your reputation was based on eveeyone knowing this phase, it signified your mission statement as in the case of scamp and dude, or your quality and reputation such as something like 'just do it' and you walked in to primark and saw a bright purple shirt with mothering like a motherfucker on youd be slightly pissed no?

Did Asda respond to Scamp and Dude

?