New Industry Drama - What do the Peas Think?

Yeah....no clue what's going on but if you're appointing yourself as the head of this cause, then drop then quit beating around the bush and say the stores name. As it is, she is crying thief and telling people to stop buying from thiefs but then letting everyone wonder who the thief is.

could it be SSS and the new ink cube holder (released today)  that is essentially the same thing as the ink stand?

Ooooh, drama! Things were getting a bit stale in the industry... 

The black & white gloss cardstock made me think of Tonic Studios (Mirror Card). The Mirror Card gloss also comes in a holographic finish. Is this who she is referring to?

Could be. Their ink cube holder has been out for a little bit - I was looking at it a week or two ago maybe? I liked it because the spaces were closer together. 

Funny, I emailed them a while back begging for a 6” T-Ruler and they came out with one. I’d looked for one for ages. Probably nothing to do with md though. 

You didn’t pick. It sounded like you were thinking it through. I wonder too. 

To add my own thoughts, I don't think selling holographic paper or white or black glossy cardstock are "unique" in the sense that other companies shouldn't be allowed to do it. I believe Tonic had their glossy black mirror card before Erin Lee, but SSS definitely came out with their glossy black/white recently (within the last 6 months-ish?). And holographic finishes have been popular for at least the past two years in crafting, probably more, so again, I don't think holographic cardstock is unique to ELC.

I had actually been thinking about the solid hot foil plate before PFS made their post, because I noticed Waffle Flower came out with one, then Spellbinders came out with some (that are at least a bit different, they are meant to transfer excess foil in specific shapes, not a full card front), and I saw that ELC released theirs too. I think it's great that Pinkfresh developed their solid hot foil plate, but I do have to wonder whether it meets the criteria of being eligible for a patent, because the Gemini Foilpress machine actually comes with a metal shim that performs a similar function. Also, when I got a glimmer machine (a few years ago, before PFS even started making hot foil plates), I tried to MacGyver my own solid hot foil plate with an older Spellbinders texture plate, and I bet I'm not the only crafter to try that. Both of those facts mean that the PFS solid hot foil plate probably wouldn't meet the "novel" or "non-obvious" requirements for a patent.

If it wasn't able to be patented, then while it absolutely is unfortunate for Pinkfresh that other companies are adapting the idea, it's the nature of the industry.

In the end, if a product does not qualify to be protected by intellectual property laws, whether trademark, copyright, trade dress or patent, then what differentiates the product is the company's implementation/expression. In that sense, I think Pinkfresh has made a good choice where they've offered great education with their solid hot foil plate and a large library of patterned hot foil plates that can work with the solid plate.

Okay sorry, I have more to talk about now, lol! I just watched her video on her IG and I think she's confusing a few issues.

So first, I am not a lawyer, but I did have to take a class in college about intellectual property and I learned a lot that I didn't understand before. There are many popular misconceptions about intellectual property, some of which Erin Lee seems to believe in, so here's a quick breakdown, courtesy of Wikipedia:

A patent is a form of right granted by the government to an inventor or their successor-in-title, giving the owner the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering to sell, and importing an invention for a limited period of time, in exchange for the public disclosure of the invention. An invention is a solution to a specific technological problem, which may be a product or a process and generally has to fulfill three main requirements: it has to be new, not obvious and there needs to be an industrial applicability.[31]: 17  To enrich the body of knowledge and stimulate innovation, it is an obligation for patent owners to disclose valuable information about their inventions to the public.

A copyright gives the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time. Copyright may apply to a wide range of creative, intellectual, or artistic forms, or "works".[33][34] Copyright does not cover ideas and information themselves, only the form or manner in which they are expressed.

A trademark is a recognizable sign, design or expression which distinguishes products or services of a particular trader from similar products or services of other traders.

So basically, patent is about a process/invention, copyright is about artistic expression and trademark is about branding.

In her video, Erin says that she could work with lawyers to copyright her ideas, but she doesn't because it's costly, time-consuming and a lengthy process. However, she CANNOT copyright ideas, just the original expression of them. For intellectual property laws, there is nothing original about selling 8.5x11 sheets of holographic/glossy cardstock. These paper finishes have existed for many years in other industries. Since the paper does not have a pattern or unique shape, there is no artistic expression, it is a standard industry size with a standard color and a standard coating.

To give another example, I've visited Erin's shop before because I do find some her designs appealing. At one point, she had a kit (stamps, dies, stencils) with rainbows and clouds. Now, if anyone had exactly copied her designs, it would have been theft, but that does not mean that another company cannot come out with a rainbow/cloud-themed kit. (In fact, I'd argue she was late to the rainbow trend.)

She is also wrong about the copyright process, in a sense. In the US, the moment something is put in a fixed medium (words, songs, drawings, etc), the item is protected by copyright. While she can register the copyright, which gives her additional protections, she does not need any legal process to have her works protected by copyright. But again, IDEAS cannot be copyrighted.

This gets a little murky when we start talking about the hot foil plate, because it is more of an invention than an artistic expression. As I discussed in an earlier post, I don't think the PFS hot foil plate would qualify for a patent because it doesn't meet the requirements.

In the end, the most confusing part to me is that she copied another company (PFS hot foil plate), released the item, then pulled it with a mea culpa, but then she proceeded to obscure her wrongdoing by talking about industry giants stealing ideas. In my opinion, she is trying to direct her audience/consumers away from her mistake by pointing the finger at other companies.

Does it suck for small companies when other companies adapt their ideas? Absolutely, no question about it. But is it illegal? Well, in these cases, probably not. Intellectual property laws are very specific because they HAVE to be, otherwise one person/company could effectively claim rights over broad swaths of ideas/inventions/expressions. The point of intellectual property laws is to "encourage the creation of a wide variety of intellectual goods" for the good of the society at whole.

I realize that Erin says she is talking about integrity, not legality, but I think that she's confusing several different issues here.

wendifful Thank you so much for your really insightful comments. I think you're right - integrity vs legality. I do sympathize with these small craft companies because they have so much to deal with from Chinese rip-offs, to supply shortages, increased shipping costs which customers get mad at them for when it's not in their control, in addition to coming up with innovative ideas only to have other companies start selling the same thing.

I think the things she's mentioned - the glossy and holographic card stocks, and even the solid foil plate - aren't really in the product-stealing arena, though. The hot foil plate is great, but people were using metal shims before this. And like Wendifful said, the cardstocks have been around forever. PinkFresh mentioned the layering stencils, but layering stencils have been around for decades, they just weren't used for cards perhaps, but the product still existed - I used them to stencil cute vehicles onto my son's bedroom wall in 2000.

Every type of product can't be exclusive to one specific company, it just doesn't work like that.

What the hell is hot foiling and a hot plate?

And good gravy Marie I bought holographic stickers and paper in the 80's. And white gloss paper.has been around forever in some form or another She certainly didn't invent those items.

This!
Many of the same items are made by many companies.
A perfect example is the Raskog type carts and the cube unit type shelves. 

The same can be said for merchandise in general.
Weighted blankets, compartment lunch containers, leftover containers, Ugg type boots, gel nails, and a million other other items, etc.... became the "in thing"....many, many, many companies came out with their version of it.

I agree with this 100%. And her post is so confusing if you read it first. But all of the above makes sense.

Probably more for cards than scrapbooks, it's a way to transfer foil with a heated plate and special dies. The foiling is gorgeous and with the metal dies, you can get really detailed images. With the solid plate, you can take the piece of foil you just transferred and transfer the negative image. It's a whole new way to spend crafty $$. Pinkfresh does a really good job of designing their foil plates & cutting dies so that both the first design and the negative look pretty.