Shameless copying isn’t something new to international retail giant Zara. In the latest debacle, Zara has been accused of copying Indie artist Tuesday Bassen, using her copyright – protected work, including various original pins that the company has allegedly copied and affixed to many garments.
Bassen told The Fashion Law that in 2015 she began making LA-produced clothing, based on her original illustrations that she has been creating for several years prior.
Fans of the artist had sent her messages and images of the copies, and she took these to a lawyer. Zara responded saying that her work was too simple.
“We reject your claims here for reasons similar to those already stated above. The lack of distinctiveness of your client’s purported designs makes it very hard to see how a significant part of the population anywhere in the world would associate the signs with Tuesday Bassen,” said Zara’s counsel in a letter to Bassen’s lawyer.
“No one would know it was me because Zara gets 98,000,000 visitors and I’m an independent artist,” said Bassen.
Despite having a substantial case, Bassen doesn’t’ have the resources to fight the retail giant, whose owner, Amancio Ortega, occupies the number two spot on Forbes’ Richest People in the World list.
