Spanish clothing retailer, Zara, is now under fire for allegedly ripping off a young designer's unique designs.
Los Angeles artist Tuesday Bassen posted the below message to her Instagram accusing Zara of intellectual property theft. The post shows both her grievance and the reply she received from the fast-fashion giant:
Stellar reports that Zara's argument is in fact that Bassen's designs are essentially not famous enough. For that reason they claim a big portion of the population won't associate Zara's designs with her name. That is hardly the point, Zara.
Mashable notes that, unfortunately, there are very few laws that protect designers. No matter how hard they try to copyright their work, it can easily be snatched up by powerful clothing companies like Zara.
And more and more designers are calling Zara and other retailers like River Island out on their reckless disregard for intellectual property of designers:
Inditex, the company that owns Zara, gave W24 the following statement:
Inditex has the utmost respect for the individual creativity of all artists and designers and takes all claims concerning third party intellectual property rights very seriously. Inditex was recently contacted by Tuesday Bassen’s lawyers who noted the use of illustrations in some badges sourced externally and on clothes in its Group stores. The Company immediately opened an investigation into the matter and suspended the relevant items from sale. Inditex’s legal team is also in contact with Tuesday Bassen’s lawyers to clarify and resolve the situation as swiftly as possible.
We have contacted Tuesday Bassen for comment, but she is yet to respond.
