Could they be twins?

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Permalink Reply by Marshall Alexander on August 13, 2008 at 4:16am

Hmm, difficult one. From a legal point of view I think the design differs enough to allow him to do this, even though the resemblance with Speakerdog is striking. But maybe JC-One has more to say on this. The least you can try is send the guy an e-mail to clear things up, but make sure to keep it friendly.

I would try not to be too annoyed by it, try to see the positive side of it (which can be hard sometimes). My work has been ripped off commercially without me ever seeing a penny of it and there was nothing I could do about it. It happens to all of us one day and the only way to avoid it is not publishing our work (online), which for me is not an option.

B.t.w. I'm getting increasingly worried each time I release a new model, because I am afraid it will too much resemble an already existing model I was not aware of, or something I was subconsiously influenced by. It already happened that I released stuff that I felt was similar to other models. Not necessarily the template, but the theme or idea. It sucks, but I think in such an active community like the papertoys community it is bound to happen once in a while.

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Permalink Reply by Tephlon on September 10, 2008 at 3:38am

Actually a good way to go, according to this site (YouThoughtWeWouldn'tNotice) is, instead of contacting the ad-agency, going straight to the final customer.

Ie.: http://youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com/blog3/?p=1224

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Permalink Reply by JC-one on February 2, 2009 at 10:47am

wow, this is the first time I'm noticing this.....just checked out that dudes site.
lol...dude, what do you think about that?.....ummmm, yea.....I would say it's similar, if I were being humble.

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Permalink Reply by Anubis on August 13, 2008 at 4:50am

I'm with UF here. You really can't do much but email him and ask nicely to either be acknowledged for inspiration or to kindly take it off the web. It simply looks WAY too much like your model. You have a classic model. He probrably just created this model using some ideas he picked up sub-consciously from looking at yours some day. Its just too similar to be an absolute coincidence.

Anubis

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Permalink Reply by Dr.Shazam on August 13, 2008 at 5:26am

Marshall has some excellent points--I would point out there is a group on copyright matters here at NPT (we haven't done much with the group, but plenty of people who struggle with the issue).

If the "Bearies" model were a release from a business, I think you would have reason to take the gloves off and throw down. As a student project, I think this is "adapting a source material" and not plagiarism. Conceptually, this is not a papertoy but rather a package, and serves a very distinctly different purpose--though I don't know if that makes a difference to the conversation.

If it were my own circumstance, I might contact the individual to point out you are aware of their work, and make clear that you are interested in retaining what rights you have to it. Mainly just point out that you are protective of your intellectual property and observant.

When you've got a good thing, Ben, people want a piece of it!
And I should add, you are generous enough to Share It--don't let them Take It.

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Permalink Reply by Tephlon on September 10, 2008 at 3:32am

Agreed. Maybe contact him to assert that while you don't mind him being inspired for a student project, you would like to be compensated for any future commercial work "inspired" by your toy.

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Permalink Reply by TylerTT on August 24, 2008 at 7:57am

i would pick flattered

well really with my understanding of copyright there is nothing really illegal going on, even a design level patent would likely not cover this. There could be some inspiration from Speakerdog, but without confirmation from the creator i can not know for sure.

one thing i noticed is that unless I'm missing something this model has no bottom!, meaning any granola put in it would fall right out!

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Permalink Reply by Tephlon on August 27, 2008 at 2:51am

I think what he envisioned is a shell that goes around the normal packaging.

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Permalink Reply by ben the illustrator on August 26, 2008 at 12:41am

I decided to take the 'flattered' route, it's not worth being overly-protective or getting serious about it, it's the guy's student project after all. Thanks for the opinions guys!

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Permalink Reply by Tephlon on August 27, 2008 at 2:50am

For what it's worth, someone else has already called him out on the similarities.

I think it's obvious he was 'inspired' by your Speakerdog toy and even if he used it for a student project should have acknowledged it. (Maybe he did when handing it in, but I doubt it)

He did profit from it though. He's using it in his portfolio and apparently got himself a freelance job at Saatchi & Saatchi because of his Portfolio.

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Permalink Reply by Eric Wiryanata on September 10, 2008 at 2:52am

this is so inspiring... got a freelance job because of re-modelling something.

it's obvious now, that you are as the true speakerdog maker, should get more benefits than he.

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Permalink Reply by Saltnpaper on February 9, 2009 at 4:33am

I guess this kind of thing is every designer's pain in the @$$... I salute you Ben for being so patience, go forth o true Speakerdog!

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