Artist chases Paperchase over swiped character

paperchaseallegedplagiarism.jpg

Paperchase is 'strenuously' denying allegations of plagiarism leveled after art similar to work by Hidden Eloise was spotted adorning its products.

On the left, the original painting. On the right, the design as printed on bags and other items by the British stationery company. (The photo is from iworkatborders' livejournal.) After the topic fired up Twitter, Paperchase posted a statement claiming that it bought the design 'in good faith' from a 'reputable' agency, which itself denies plagiarizing her artwork.

Hidden Eloise responds:

Paperchase seems to think that it is a great excuse that they bought the infringing design from an outside source. Paperchase ignores that they were the ones selling the products. It doesn't matter how you obtained them. What matters is that you had a chance to act upon this matter in November when I contacted you and you never did. Now you are blaming someone else and you are still denying what is in front of your very eyes. Plagiarism that is. Everybody but you seems to believe so.

Actually, let me correct myself in that Paperchase is not "denying" plagiarism. They are just saying that they would never knowingly sell plagiarised material. Which I'm sure is exactly what their expensive lawyers advised them to say so that Paperchse has plausible deniability in court.

Eloise complains that Paperchase has released more products featuring the design since being shown the original. Lawyers ask for "astronomical amounts of money" to go after them, she adds.

Chasing paperchase [Hide n Seek] (The artwork is for sale here)

Paperchase forced to deny it 'plagiarised' British artist's work after Twitter campaign [Telegraph]