From cheap souvenirs to handmade ceramics: what happens when copyright expires

Welcome to Field guideColumn Sama Reiss of Snake that covers all the time design and where you can find it.

For now, Alek Alek Matisse, Prabakin French artist Henri Matisse, ran away from family tradition. “I fell in love with clay as a medium” in fifth grade, he says. He tried to “throw” in college, but eventually found himself. “I moved to the Asheville, North Carolina Mountains,” he says, to “find my way and do something that was outside the mate’s heritage and Eastern fork was what appeared. “

During the past decade and changes in ceramics, there are created the name only for itself Product of limited edition, offering competitive salaries and using “radical transparency” on Instagram and on their marketing. The last few years has seen Cooperation with pondcanned sea company, and popular chef Molly Ieh. Alex says for a long time, “So many people had no idea that it was nothing to do with the artist.”

Earlier this year, however, Alek has established a relationship very publicly when the eastern fork has launched a collection It contains Matisse’s work on serving plates, mugs, bowls and plates. Alex says Cooperation with Heritiers Matisse, the family partnership, “cements in her hearts and minds,” and focusing on the work of matizer, his deep blues “, to the eastern fork,” to translate well forked. “The gathering of this collection was deeply personal and connected me to his work and heritage in the way I wasn’t before,” said Alek.

But the release time was more than just the dominance of species of Alex. The new ceramic came just as his grandfather entered a public domain at this time of day, when he and artist’s successors’ Compensation right to his work licenses ended. If not explicitly, a new collection is as an example of how real estate or family can manage this transition, where the artwork or design loses its copyright protection, it is able to be allowed easier than precise-perimeter-pen or calendar.

In America, works of art, literature and ideas, which include parts of design, enter public domain and enter free space 1. January every year, 70 years after the death of the relevant artist. (Other noticeably expires copyright lately: PARNI BROD VALT DISNEI VILLIE in 2024 years, Che Guevara’s Likuness 2018 years) To be sure, the contractual specifics are important, not everything that predicts in the 1950s can hit the label or bumper hat. Finally, although the signs and pieces are free can be referenced and used to display in more places. Think of Frankenstein’s monster and Dracula, two characters whose competition rights have expired before their cereals or cartoon movies.

There may not be another artist whose work or personality is so ubiquitely commercialized as Frida Kahlo, licensed or otherwise. The new stable of its production entered the public domain in January this year, and now at least one new collection of mats from the Frida Kahlo CorporationAccording to her spokesman, Beatriz Alvarado, guarded his “name, picture and similarity”, including any intellectual property she built around her. “Our responsibility is to ensure that whenever Frida is called in the store, she tries to her values ​​and spirit,” says Alvarado. “It is also to move forward, written in her letters” NO Me Olvides “.

Release, partnership with tamper, Company that produces rugs that are madeIt covers five oily evidence, clients and dog design inspired by Kahlov “pictures, textiles and life in Mekico City.” When asked how the collection extends to the heritage of an artist, Alvarado explains that “he never separated the art from life. Her home was her payment, treated design as an extension as an extension for new generations.”

In the world of furniture, especially, Public domain often leads to a situation near assor a vague famous chair that is now in each new place Taco. The best example could be Tolic chair. If you’ve ever received Tacos in a restaurant with exposed walls of brick and bare wiring, then you saw him. It originally designed by Xavier Pauchard in 1935. For companies to polish, it is stainless steel chair, water resistant, simple and metal, round on top and hollow rear. Quickly became a favorite in French cafes when copyright was understood 2018 years. Tolik and not very transfused as Monobloc chairBut enough is cheap to reproduce that design-already everywhere in Europe ahead of decadeLotirs Velice Mesters for a fraction of the original cost of making iteration. Nearly meme-valuableIt is called “everywhere chairs“And it’s too much space because his design is no longer protected by copyright.

Even without paying the license, there is a significant cost for duplication of the chair in the scope. And the furniture is difficult to copyright even when there is protection. “To a great extent,” he says David M. AdlerAn intellectual property lawyer in Illinois advised designers and companies, “Chair is a chair, and the table is.” What is, in design, the difference between trademark-logos, brand, public identity – and copyright that especially refers to the design of the case. The furniture existed millennium, and “It’s hard to say” whether the chair or table looks like, “said Adler”, “it’s so original and creative that nothing like that can exist. “

The protection of works continues to retain its copyright case rights to the case, Adler says. He gives an example in connection with Charles and Ray Eases design Galaxy; It may receive copyright protection for 3D design, and its metal pipes can be considered art. But it depends on the lawyer and the judge. Then, when you take into account international markets, things are becoming more complex. You see so much tolic chairs that just look like original and Eames ass because they are imported. “Overseas producers who violate are out of reach of domestic companies,” says Adler and “they get out with it because it is difficult to apply American IP laws abroad.” However, the goods can be confiscated at border or destroyed – if the copyright is valid, and if the company has done its paperwork. However, the copyright item has expired, it may be easier to import.

In the world of art, there are several licensing: These are canonical images that end on T-shirts and pencils. One way to get around, it could be to start a licensed route, which Eastern forklift did. For a leafy capsule, Alex chose later works on line, including portraits in the artist line on the side panels and other series Bleu, La Peruche et La Sirene-on other cases; Ceramics came out this summer.

With Matisse’s work, it is now more exposed, making a critical eye on the eastern jaw collection was crucial in placing except what could occur at the Tchotchkes gas station. The cooperation of the East Chamber began three years ago, before the expiration of copyright, and Les Heritsi Matisse acts as a point. Family, famous to be required As for the way artist’s work is expressed, put objects through the bell. “We knew that there would be additional oversight” from Les Heriter for Cooperation, says Alek. His brother Georges managed cooperation – “Back, back, back, back and forth, Iteration after iteration” – and put samples of audits, because “anything done from the family must be at a certain level.” (We have heard the situation with the son of a coach from one brother holding another to a high collaborative standard.)

The result is a collection that is called again, done with appropriate attention to detail and decisively except what might fall on a pike that uses images from home images produced during life artists. (Already started: the collection of Matisse-blue clothes, in July this year.) There is a way to deviate from the future about what Alex Alex is calling “shower curtains,” perhaps through a family connection, but definitely through the job.