Those Pesky Laws - Don't Let Them Get in Your Way!

So…once again, Etsy manages to take a perfectly benign (if, in our opinion, generally useless) Storque feature and turn it into a nightmarish example of Etsy’s complete lack of professionalism (and, apparently, lack of a clue, as well).

Of what do we speak? The latest installment in the Quit Your Day Job series featuring Etsy sellers, highlighting the work of GeekCentralStation, seems to have completely missed the fact that this shop is selling figures based on, and with names identical to, some trademarked characters.

Here’s a little news flash: DC Comics usually doesn’t like people to sell things with the Superman “S” blazing on the front without their permission. The Superman shield is a registered trademark. Yoda is registered, too, and toys and plush figures that look like Yoda are supposed to be licensed. How do I know this? Well, I took the handy advice provided by Etsy attorney SarahSays in her Storque series on Legal Info for Artists and searched the U.S. Patent office site for trademarks related to some of these characters. Hello? Etsy? Do you EVER listen to your own advice?

Let us be clear – the Bitches don’t feel any great sympathy for DC Comics or Lucasfilms. We certainly don’t care if someone makes a little bit of money using these characters, and we’re not interested in defending Big Corporate America against an indie artisan. But the laws are out there, and questions about copyrights and trademarks come up on Etsy all the time. How many times do you see a newbie post something like, “Can I sell my cute Spongebob bibs here?”

Let us also be clear – we know that it’s not Etsy’s job, as a venue, to enforce this stuff. Lucasfilms, or whichever corporation, has to defend its rights in these situations. And most of the time, small businesses fly well under the corporate radar. But for God’s sake, Etsy, don’t act like the laws don’t exist! Way to further reinforce the widespread idea that it's perfectly all right to profit from the use of trademarked images. Not only that, but by featuring this seller, Etsy may very well have screwed her over by making her a bit more public and getting the shop out there where Lucas Licensing can see it.

And let us FURTHER be clear – we like this seller’s work. Her little figures are really cute, and the work appears to be pretty nice. If she’s selling successfully, it sure seems justified. We don’t want to bash Sammi in any way. We just can’t believe that no one at Etsy noticed that the characters were a bit, um, familiar.

As a few people pointed out in comments on the Storque article – did anyone at Etsy even CONSIDER this before publishing the feature? Maybe this seller did all her homework and talked to a lawyer. Maybe she even got permission from these companies to use the characters’ names and images. But, sadly, we doubt it. Whatever – there’s no mention of that anywhere in the shop or the article. Here was the perfect chance for Etsy to teach the few dozen people who still read the Storque what to do, or what NOT to do, when thinking about trademarked characters. This article could have given us some really useful information. All we get from Etsy is an afterthought by SarahSays at the end of the comments, after other people raised questions - and she just told them to mind their own business, reminding us we "don't have all the details." Too little, too late. This is a real problem, and by acting like it's some secret we don't deserve to know about, Sarah misses the point.

This is yet another example of cluelessness, laziness, and simple failure to make sure the staff knows the company’s rules. It’s the same reason we see mass produced goods on the front page, featured in Storque treasuries, and gracing the Gift Guides, time and time again. Admin would have to be actually PAYING ATTENTION to make sure that didn't happen.

Etsy, once again, the hammock has collapsed out from under you.