someone passing my work off as their own.

[MrsFlorrick]

I run a small interior design business.

I have recently finished renovating and extending my own home. I have ploughed several £100ks into this.

House looks amazing. I designed every single element inc the extension (my back ground and first degree is in building surveying so have technical knowledge as well).

I acted as my own main contractor with every trade working directly for me.

Two days ago I found out that the painter and decorator has taken interior shots of the house without my knowledge or permission.
Furthermore she has been passing my design work off as her own!

Everything from colour schemes to bespoke furniture. She is even claiming the bathroom tiling my tiler did is her work!

This will ruin me completely. She has plastered all this all over the Internet which means I will struggle to get an interiors magazine to publish (they want first dibs).
And no articles means it's almost all wasted and won't make any contribution to promoting my business.

I am appalled and very upset. She was a crap decorator and I've had to book someone else in to come and tidy up some of the poor bits she has done.

Surely this isn't allowed? I designed everything I have drawings, 3D perspectives etc etc to prove it. Along with the fact that she didn't even buy paint. I bought all they paint for the decorators to ensure I got exactly what I wanted and not poor quality cheap colour matches.

She has announced to the world that she is a designer and that the entire refurb of my house is her work. I can prove I didn't even meet her or any of the other decorators until the very final stage of the project.

What can I do to stop this?? I am hoping someone here have some ideas.

The damage to my reputation will be pretty immense as her work is poor quality and people will associate my work with hers. Which means those clients will have been taken for a ride thinking they were getting my work but actually would get God knows what.

Any one with experience and soothing words would really help.

MrsFlorrick possible pitfalls of sending cease and desist letters without advice run from simply putting yourself on the back foot in the whole process to potentially opening yourself up to being sued for groundless threats. Your work might be covered by a number of IP rights and it would be sensible to make sure all are considered properly before sending any cease and desist letter - to make sure the letter is as strong as possible. You also need to make sure you don't rely on any rights you don't have and put yourself at risk,

You ought to be able to get a reasonable cease and desist letter from an IP solicitor for about £1000. This isn't exactly what I do, but I refer work to IP solicitors regularly and I'd be more than happy to put you in touch with someone for an initial chat, if you want to explore options. Most solicitors will have a chat with someone without charge.

I would contact trading standards. It may also be worth approaching the sites on which she is advertising/posting "her" work and reporting her posts. I've had success in having social media and sales sites (Facebook, eBay, etc) take down inappropriate postings. Most don't want to be involved in false advertising or possible infringement of IP rights.

Firstlift. thanks so much!
That's brilliant advice. I had no idea that even writing something like that could be such a mine field. Yikes.

Interestingly the Facebook stuff was removed first. Perhaps that's easier than the other sites.

I may well PM you in the morning and take you up on your referral. I will have a chat with DH when he gets home later. Typical. He has been abroad on business this week. I've only told him the outline of the saga so no doubt will want to hear more.

And I am phoning Trading Standards as well.

Ugh. What's wrong with people.

Thanks everyone!!
Am off to have

How are you getting on?