Darfurnica

And here’s another one in the category ‘Art Under Siege': a particularly bizarre case of a major company, Louis Vuitton, prosecuting a young artist, Nadia Plesner, for ‘infringement on their intellectual property’ (for depicting one of their handbags in a rather controversial painting…

Read all about the background here.

And below the painting in question is a recent communication of  Nadia Plesener about the state of legal proceedings.

Nadia Plesner - Darfurnica

 

From: “Nadia Plesner” <contact [ a t ] nadiaplesner.com>
Date: April 13, 2011 1:27:17 PM GMT+02:00

As some of you might have heard, I am facing a litigation started by Louis Vuitton. LV is aggressively going after my painting Darfurnica, in which I depict a little Darfur boy holding a LV bag and Paris Hilton’s dog. They claim that depicting their bag in a work of art is a violation of their design rights.

Amazingly, they recently obtained an ex parte order from the court of The Hague against me, which forbids me from depicting the little boy with the bag, including in any work of art or on my website; there is a penalty of EUR 5000 per day for any violation (the clock is ticking since January 28, and the total amount is now 380.000 EUR today.

I refuse to remove the artwork from my website, instead I have countersued and we are preparing summary proceedings to have the court order lifted.

For more information I refer you to this blog (which includes an English translation of the court order):

http://www.mediareport.nl/persrecht/07032011/louis-vuitton-sues-danish-artist-plesner-in-the-netherlands-over-depiction-of-bag-in-art-work/en/

The first court hearing will take place Wednesday April 20 at 2pm in the court in the Hague, Prins Clauslaan 60.

I would like to invite all of you to come to the court hearing and support me and the freedom of speech.

My class and teachers are coming, but the more the better. Together we can show LV and other large companies that in a world of IP rights, there must be room left for artistic freedom.

There will be media people attending the hearing as well.
If you come, make sure you’re there in time, as there is also a security check you have to go through by the entrance.

I hope to see you there, and if you know other people who might want to support my case, feel free to forward this information to them.

All the best,

Nadia Plesner, BK2 Rietveld Academie

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