Ashley Furniture Accused of Copyright Infringement
August 7, 2006
NORTH CAROLINA – In a complaint filed Friday, August 4 with the US District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, seven American suppliers have accused Ashley Furniture Industries and Southwestern Furniture of Wisconsin of allegedly copying and selling copyrighted designs.
The seven plaintiffs are: Eastern Accents, Inc. (Illinois); American Silk Mills (Delaware); Duralee Fabrics (New York); Joan Fabrics (Massachusetts); Quaker Fabrics (Massachusetts); P.Kaufmann Fabrics (New York); Sunbury Textile Mills (Delaware).
Southwestern Furniture operates several Ashley Furniture Home stores. They are also a customer of Eastern Accents, having purchased several of the bedding collections at issue from them.
According to the complaint, Ashley Furniture has only been manufacturing, marketing and selling its own lines of soft bedding products for the past several years. Not wanting to put the time and effort into establishing the design of these collections, "Ashley hit upon the strategy of appropriating and copying the highly successful designs of others, designs known in the marketplace for being quality and luxury products"—(item number 20).
According to item number 21 of the complaint, Ashley has created knock-offs of at least fourteen different Eastern Accents collections.
Eastern Accents purchases luxury fabrics from the other plaintiffs listed and designs and manufactures bedding collections with those fabrics.
An Eastern Accents collection may contain fabrics designed by several different manufacturers.
"Eastern Accents does not generally own copyrights in the fabrics designs themselves; the fabric designers generally own those copyrights," according to the complaint.
It was in April that Eastern Accents became aware that Ashley and SFW were selling these knock-offs. When they began to investigate the copying of their designs, they visited several Ashley Furniture Home stores, including SFW stores. At times the SFW employees acknowledged and stated that the Ashley collections were knock-offs of Eastern Accents' products.
Ashley and SFW have also attempted to mislead customers into believing they were purchasing Eastern Accents' products when they were actually buying Ashley products.
All plaintiffs are seeking a trial to award them damages suffered due to the copyright infringement and all profits received by Ashley for these alleged copies.
The seven plaintiffs are: Eastern Accents, Inc. (Illinois); American Silk Mills (Delaware); Duralee Fabrics (New York); Joan Fabrics (Massachusetts); Quaker Fabrics (Massachusetts); P.Kaufmann Fabrics (New York); Sunbury Textile Mills (Delaware).
Southwestern Furniture operates several Ashley Furniture Home stores. They are also a customer of Eastern Accents, having purchased several of the bedding collections at issue from them.
According to the complaint, Ashley Furniture has only been manufacturing, marketing and selling its own lines of soft bedding products for the past several years. Not wanting to put the time and effort into establishing the design of these collections, "Ashley hit upon the strategy of appropriating and copying the highly successful designs of others, designs known in the marketplace for being quality and luxury products"—(item number 20).
According to item number 21 of the complaint, Ashley has created knock-offs of at least fourteen different Eastern Accents collections.
Eastern Accents purchases luxury fabrics from the other plaintiffs listed and designs and manufactures bedding collections with those fabrics.
An Eastern Accents collection may contain fabrics designed by several different manufacturers.
"Eastern Accents does not generally own copyrights in the fabrics designs themselves; the fabric designers generally own those copyrights," according to the complaint.
It was in April that Eastern Accents became aware that Ashley and SFW were selling these knock-offs. When they began to investigate the copying of their designs, they visited several Ashley Furniture Home stores, including SFW stores. At times the SFW employees acknowledged and stated that the Ashley collections were knock-offs of Eastern Accents' products.
Ashley and SFW have also attempted to mislead customers into believing they were purchasing Eastern Accents' products when they were actually buying Ashley products.
All plaintiffs are seeking a trial to award them damages suffered due to the copyright infringement and all profits received by Ashley for these alleged copies.
