An artist known as Hidden Eloise sparked a Twitter campaign against Paperchase after she posted “tweets” expressing her outrage at the stationary firm ignoring her claims of copyright infringement.  Her complaints were picked up by thousands of followers on Twitter and within hours became one of the top trending topics globally.

The U.S. based artist claims that a design which Paperchase have been using on products including bags and books is a copy of a print she created and had been selling on craft website Etsy since March 2008 titled “He says he can hear the Forest whisper”.








Hidden Eloise Print      







After being notified of the Paperchase design by a fellow Etsy member she contacted Paperchase in November 2009. Paperchase denied copying and stated that they had bought the design in good faith from another company.






Paperchase Design on Bag








Finding the cost of taking Paperchase to court too expensive ($40,000) Hidden Eloise turned to Twitter urging her followers to email Paperchase in support of her claims.

Paperchase later joined Twitter itself in an effort to address concerns raised and in a statement released by the company said that they bought the design in question from a reputable design studio (which has also denied copyright infringement) and will be looking into the matter further.

BRIFFA Comment

The designs though similar, particularly with regard to the girl portrayed, do have some substantial differences when looked at as a whole. Therefore whether or not Paperchase’s design constitutes copyright infringement is arguable.

As Paperchase had bought the design from a design studio it is likely that it would have in its agreement with them a provision to the effect that the design studio is responsible for ensuring that the designs/artworks supplied do not infringe third party intellectual property.

The design studio itself would most likely, if action were taken against Paperchase, also be joined to any such legal proceedings.

Though the artist stated that court costs were too expensive for her to pursue a legal claim, issuing formal legal proceedings is usually a last resort and it is common for matters to be resolved out of court at low cost.

Hidden Eloise has grabbed Paperchase’s attention - she now needs to capitalise on it by setting out her legal title and assessing damages properly payable to her.   

This article is provided courtesy of Briffa, specialist Intellectual Property Lawyers. Briffa are the Creative Lawyers for Creative Business. They  help businesses across all industry sectors to Identify, Protect, Exploit and Enforce these valuable business assets.

For more information of enforcement of your intellectual property against infringers and copyright and design protection please do not hesitate to get into contact with one of their lawyers via INFO.