Retapping Resources
It seems those in the “industry” with huge monetary outlays of infrastructure don’t take Groudplans way of adventurous experimenting to heart and seem reticent to appreciate it when they see it. Looking like a small fry, without the showroom and staff operations compared with others having this huge overhead has allowed me to experiment with design structure while passing these savings onto our customers.
But then others saw it and ran with it….many of my carpet designs that I didn’t bring to market but shared with others - both designers, dealers and manufacturers in the hopes of monetary gain have been appropriated without any monetary accommodation to me. They have become commonplace finds on the market. Those who seem lacking in innovation picked up on them and ran with it.
Our eponymous carpet collection, Groundplans was conceived in the late-80’s with the intent of bringing the beauty of earth’s topography indoors and underfoot. These designs from my first collection debuted over 30 years ago. Since then they have been taken up by others and spread far and wide.
Groundplans 1990 Rocks At Ise / Tai Ping 2007 for St Regis
BUFFETT to BLAME???
“Buffett?”, you might ask.
His ownership of 60+ businesses are enterprises that he bought and shrunk to eke out the most profit without considering the harm done by shrinking US manufacturing - profit being the main goal. In hindsight I see my business was directly affected. I worked with a great manufacturer in Dalton, Georgia. They’d literally ring me up (back in the day) to let me know if a color seemed off for a series of Superman rugs I was making for Warner Bros Studio Stores.
Once the parent company, Shaw Rugs was bought Buffett preferred letting the not so profitable ones go by the waist-side - production being sent oversees. This forced me to work with unethical middlemen here in the Stateside - dealers with overseas manufacturing connections who helped themselves to my designs, profits and clients. And a couple of oversees manufacturers are still profiting, without showing me a dime for over 20 years. This after I shared my designs with them in the hope of receiving royalties - even having them sign Non-Appropriation Agreements and copyrighting them.
Buffett was one of the first to figure out how to do away with what were the original ma + pa U.S. owned businesses - built from the ground up - to squeeze the most profitability out of an existing business and then taking it public. Thus he was able to move his shares over a generational timeframe from a couple of hundred dollars a share to presently almost half of $1million/share for the top 1%. Bravo “Oracle of Omaha”.
WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND
And while on the subject of Buffett…
If Buffett, Gates, etc. paid their fair share of taxes there would be enough to go around the table for public good. Instead under the guise of giving away 1/2 their billions of wealth while they’re still alive, they set up ways to give that tax money to niche organizations - the likes of universities and foreign investments. While in this country, when parents can’t afford to take care of their sick children, the government takes them away and puts them in foster care.
Don’t these uber successful men understand a fundamental principle of economics? These people who are in such need, if given a leg up offered by government programs would in turn be buying the products these uber wealthy men own and sell. Wouldn't this make them that much more profitable? AND it would significantly lower our national debt - possibly helping to bring us out of being a drug infested nation with a crumbling infrastructure and mass incarceration.
How wonderful it would be if these men took a listen and emulated the women counterparts in their lives; one now a deceased sister and the other an ex-wife:
Doris Buffett set up the Sunshine Lady Foundation to give a portion of her Berkshire Hathaway profitable stock $ to award scholarships for victims of domestic violence, college education for prison inmates, as well she made an effort to help people with mental illnesses.
Melinda Gates set up Pivotal Ventures, investing in female-led or minority-focused venture firms.
Please excuse me, getting carried away - back to my designs….
RUST rug I made for the Fairfield Hotel lobby in NYC
On the imagery side there is my RUST rug which I now see likenesses of popping up all over- a surface design embellishing carpets in showrooms, magazines and on the internet:
BURSTS designs took on a life of their own when others saw it
BURSTS rug I installed for 48 Lex conference room - 2004
Even though select manufactures such as Milliken + Interface Flor as well as my personal manufacturer in India signed Non-Appropriation agreements of my copyrighted designs that didn’t stop them….
Mine on the left and theirs on the right.
copyrighted 2005
and then there is MESH
My “trusted” manufacturer who I shared my designs with in hopes of receiving royalties, copied the design exactly to shop it around. Home Depot for some 20 years sold it as well as various iterations of it. “Show me the money, Honey”.
With many look-alikes:
The copyrighted name MESH is used verbatim by Carnegie and Ruckstuhl
In the U.S. we seem to set up the look minus the content. We simply copy, dare I say - steal what already exists.
“Good artists borrow, great artists steal.” - Pablo Picasso
For people who’ve seen their work pop up in various places, please let this be a lesson to not hold on and not to wait - others will surely bring it to life without you. Put your creation out there as soon as possible.
And if not, it’s never too late to take back your creations. I have decided since I have been seeing the seeds of my designs elsewhere, it’s my turn to produce them. Coming out with a new collection, I want it seen as the total vision it was meant to be. Not fragmented pieces or extrapolated concepts devoid of the endless hours I spent maturing them. Because if someone is expropriating them, they don’t necessarily have the capacity to evolve them.
Unfortunately and to the huge benefit of those copying, I found legal action as a recourse is a costly endeavor with no guarantee of winning. Our copyright laws do not seem to help the matter - with only a slight change to the design, I am told by experts the copyright becomes null and void. And with only a 3 year look back of sales, no matter when or where the copying was found. There is an old Chinese proverb: won lawsuit, lost money.
In a Business of Home article, June 2021 they express how pervasive this is. To quotes:
We’re rich in inspiration but relatively poor in design education. Many knockoffs are not, technically speaking illegal.
Life is certainly full of twists, turns and meanders. Some 10 to 25 years later I am revisiting my now uber borrowed designs - evolving these designs to become au current flooring. One Design Then Two…Stay Tuned Megaverse. So much more on the horizon….