Import sourcing creates new copying challenges
By Susan M. Andrews, Fabric Editor -- Furniture Today, February 27, 2006
As more and more upholstery manufacturers take advantage of low-cost imported fabrics and cut-and-sewn upholstery kits to reduce their costs, they should remember they have a responsibility to be alert to potential copyright issues related to fabric designs. Fabrics in kits, for example, could be knocked off by the cut-and-sew operation for a lower cost, leaving everyone in the supply chain with latent quality problems that may not become evident until the product is on the sales floor or in the consumer's home.
The textile industry is hypersensitive to such issues, and the International Textile Market Assn. recently instituted improvements at the Showtime fabric fair in High Point to help exhibitors protect their intellectual property. Attendees at the show are now required to check large bags at the door, and badges have been redesigned to make it easier to distinguish between buyers and exhibitors.
As usual, there were some complaints from exhibitors about competitors selling copyrighted designs. Among the companies that alleged copyright infringement at Winter Showtime were American Decorative Fabrics, Tassel Time and Quaker Fabric. In most cases, the competitors, when challenged, agreed to withdraw the questionable samples.
Jack Cobb, president of ADF and president of ITMA, described his company's experience, which was typical.
"We saw a couple of things hanging in the booth of a new exhibitor that looked like our designs. The new exhibitor said he had designed the patterns himself, but I had been present when ADF was selecting the colors and some of them were unusual. He had our exact color line in the exact rotation, so we spoke to Richard Taffet (ITMA attorney), who talked to the other exhibitor, and the patterns were pulled.
"I don't think it was malicious. He probably just went to China, saw the pattern, liked it and bought it to resell."
That was a small issue, quickly resolved, but it illustrates a bigger problem.
"The real key," Cobb said, "is that the gold rush to China has created a lot of resellers — not a lot of fabric designers. The resellers need to know the real origin of a pattern they are buying to resell because otherwise they could be absolutely blindsided.
"They think the pattern is theirs, but then they get here — to a show like Showtime, for example — and find out there is a U.S. copyright on the pattern," Cobb said.
Another incident brought into question the unwritten rule that a competitor never crosses the threshold of another company's showroom, even if the door is open, without a specific invitation.
Whether it was bad manners, a simple misunderstanding or something sinister, the incident sent ripples throughout the traditionally collegial universe of exhibitors in the Market Square Textile Tower and altered the atmosphere there forever.
The day after Showtime ended, a sales representative for a high-end domestic mill approached the company's subleased space on the 8th floor of the tower. He found a stranger in the space — carrying a pair of scissors.
The uninvited man quickly disappeared, but the sales rep eventually learned the man was the owner of a competing company, who claimed he was in the space because he was considering renting it and wanted to take a look around.
Although the sales rep immediately reported the incident to ITMA, six weeks later no action had been taken. But don't blame ITMA. The association can't act until it receives an official complaint.
All it takes is a note on company letterhead, which seems a small thing to potentially rout bad apples from the basket, but at press time ITMA had received no official complaint.
It's not enough to just point a finger and cry "foul." If a company is violating the rules of fairness, it hurts the entire industry. Somebody has to step up and go on record. Perhaps by now, that has happened.
