Cafepress.com faces copyright lawsuit

A trademark is a symbol or phrase that is typically associated with a brand or organization to distinguish it from competitors. Not every trademark has to be registered, but can be to help ensure legal ownership and the use rights that go along with it. 

When an unauthorized party uses trademarked material for profit, it can cause damage for the owner. For the website Cafepress.com, a site that allows users to upload designs and have them printed to items like t-shirts that can then be sold through the site, this issue has been a problem. 

Since the content on Cafepress.com is user-generated, this means that users could upload content that they do not own the rights to. In the event that this happens, it could be considered an act of infringement. The Kansas City Business Journal reported that an artist named Joseph Tomelleri has filed a lawsuit against the website for copyright infringement. 

Tomelleri is an illustrator, and his work has allegedly been used on merchandise sold on Cafepress.com. The lawsuit says that 30 of the artist's images were used without permission by three Cafepress.com users. 

"CafePress is an e-commerce service that enables users to post images and sell products online. We operate our service in compliance with the relevant provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and when noticed of any copyright infringement claim, images are promptly removed from our service," said a representative for Cafepress.com in an email to the Kansas City Business Journal.

This is not the first time that Cafepress.com has been the subject of a copyright dispute. The website faced a lawsuit over the trademarked phrase "Born to Rock," in 2012. 

Intellectual property is valuable and businesses should take the steps necessary to protect their assets. A Phoenix, AZ business attorney can provide insight as to how copyright law affects your business. 

Categorised in: Intellectual Property Law

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