In
the summer of 2003, retail store chain Kmart and apparel company
Joe Boxer have distributed and sold T-shirts with a printed
design that closely resembles our BadTuna company's logo. Although
they are very similar as shown below, please do not confuse
the (red shirt) Joe Boxer's "look alike" with our logo. The
BadTuna logo
was originally created in 1997 and has been the trademark of
the creator's passion and love for ocean life and island living.
It also represents coolness with a "no fear, bad tu-na bone"
attitude towards the depths of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
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We are actually embarrassed that these BadTuna "look alike"
logo T-shirts were being sold at Kmart stores under the Joe
Boxer brand name, which is an image we do not represent. We
represent mainly the water sports (i.e., surfing, sportfishing,
scuba-diving, etc.) industry--not the underwear district. Our
goal is to become a well known company that provides high quality
products and a unique brand of surfwear and fishwear clothing
line.
For you fellow graphic artists, we did some further investigation
and research on intellectual property infringements such as
copyrights / trademarks and had found that many big retail companies
have a common practice of unethical behavior. There is an excellent
article about it in FSB
(Fortune Small Business), "Can You Spot the Knockoff?",
written by Carlye Alder, March 12, 2002 . The Pottery Barn,
Kmart, and Target were mentioned as companies that infringe
on small businesses for ideas and designs.
Krystina Castella, a designer and consultant who teaches at
the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena could not say it
any better: "In-house designers continue to develop the standard
product line while the company looks outside for innovative
ideas that they will license -- or steal." After that, the companies
can get the products made cheaply overseas and undercut the
original entrepreneurs on price--an excerpt from the referenced
article above. We felt that this is what had happened to our
BadTuna logo.
On the Joe Boxer website their mission statement reads, "JOE
BOXER is dedicated to bringing new and creative ideas to the
market place, both in our product offerings as well as our marketing
events." However, they fail to mention that their new and
creative ideas come from outside sources whether legally or
illegally.
We're sure that New York licensee Van Mar Inc. may have a few
words of their own about Joe Boxer's business practices after
winning a 3.1 million dollar lawsuit a couple of years ago.
Joe Boxer nearly went bankrupted as a result, but was bought
out in time by Windsong Allegiance in 2001.
The bottom line is that we do not steal. We create originality
by using our imagination with enthusiasm and high energy. Therefore,
we want to assure our customers that our mission has always
been to provide you with innovative, original designs, and the
highest quality products, whether they are custom logos or designs
printed on T-shirts. We will always be dedicated to our mission
and to ensure that our integrity, trust, and relationship we
have built with our customers remain intact.
It is very unfortunate that companies like Kmart and Joe Boxer
are like sharks waiting in the water to bite on innovative designs
created by smaller fish in the sea.
So if you see more of Joe Boxer clothing line at your nearest
Kmart (soon to be KSears or Searsmart) store that are very cool
looking, they might be stolen goods from small creative companies
or one of BadTuna's design work. Thanks for listening.
Aloha,
The BadTuna Company
