Thursday, August 11, 2016

Zara's Owner Responds To Artist's Copy Claims

Zara's owner Inditex has responded to claims that the popular Spanish high-street store plagiarised Californian artist Tuesday Bassen's work over the last year on several items of clothing.

"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," a spokesperson for the brand told us. "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."

Yesterday, Bassen posted a collage on her Instagram account, identifying the alleged copied designs, along with a letter that she explained she had received from Zara's legal team.


"I've been pretty quiet about this, until now," Bassen wrote. "Over the past year, @zara has been copying my artwork (thanks to all that have tipped me off - it's been a lot of you). I had my lawyer contact Zara and they literally said I have no base because I'm an indie artist and they're a major corporation and that not enough people even know about me for it to matter. I plan to further press charges, but even to have a lawyer get this LETTER has cost me $2k so far. It sucks and it's super disheartening to have to spend basically all of my money, just to defend what is legally mine."

In an additional Instagram post today, Bassen said that she had "not heard from @Zara and plans to pursue this further."

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