i+D - January/February 2018 - 37

Kind
Several years ago Emeco was working with Frank Gehry
to raise money for the Hereditary Disease Foundation.
Gehry designed an aluminum lounge named "Tuyomyo"
for Emeco to fabricate. "We vigorously worked on
this project for six months and I was proud with the
result," recalls Gregg Buchbinder, CEO, Emeco. "When
I presented this custom handmade Emeco one-off to
Frank, he said, 'We have to start over.' He had seen
a similar-looking design in a Phillips (formerly Phillips
de Pury) auction catalog from a decade earlier. Honest
people like Frank Gehry only do original work."

Educated design firms are on the same page. "HKS will
never advocate for copycat products," states Jennifer
M. Kolstad, director of interior architecture, associate
principal, and senior vice president at HKS, who
sits on the American Society of Interior Designers
(ASID) National Board of Directors. "We can't ensure
quality, warranty, performance, ethical manufacturing,
sustainability implications, procurement...the list
is long." Of greater significance, however, is HKS'
ethical commitment to refute the misappropriation of
intellectual property.

Unfortunately, the demand remains strong for authenticlooking knockoffs that cost much less than the real thing.
"Knockoffs have been a problem for a very long time,"
says John Edelman, CEO, Design Within Reach.
"What's changed in recent decades is that the internet
has made them easier to find. Plus, many dishonest
sellers intentionally confuse consumers by using the real
product name on their fake merchandise." Besides ease
of distribution, the internet also provides copycats
with a constant stream of new ideas to appropriate
as their own.

"It's a huge issue of integrity," agrees Charrisse
Johnston, principal and firmwide interior design practice
leader at Steinberg Hart and past chair of the ASID
National Board of Directors. "Using a reproduction
means the original designer and manufacturer, who
invested in the development of the original design,
are getting ripped off. And, when the knockoffs are
being made overseas, then the original country is being
deprived of sales and tax revenues."

At the same time, social media platforms and
e-commerce sites also have made it easier to spot
the offenders and monitor their activities. So, creative
companies have new tools and more resources than
ever before to combat knockoffs and keep them out
of the marketplace.
Buchbinder's team searches for counterfeit copies being
sold on well-known e-commerce sites. Emeco vigorously
protects its intellectual property and fights until fake
chairs are removed. "We litigate where someone
capitalizes or profits from our design, goodwill, or
reputation," explains Buchbinder.

i+D - January/February 2018

Furniture designers from High Point, North Carolina,
to Milan also are savvy forecasters looking years down
the road at where the market is headed, notes Linda
Kafka, marketing director, coach + brand strategist,
who is an Interior Designers of Canada (IDC) board
director and a member of IDC's industry committee.
"When they bring those [designs] out to market, it's easy
for people to knock them off within seconds. They
take a picture and off it goes to another country. Within
a few months' time, that piece is already out there,
and it's so frustrating because you put your heart and
your soul into it."
"I'm passionate about this, especially from the Canadian
perspective," adds Kafka. "It almost cuts deeper when
you see the knockoffs happening in our smaller market,
because we work so hard for people to notice us."

i+D - January/February 2018

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