For about 2 years now the idea of putting Vulva pieces inside of lockets sat hidden in the back of my mind.
I knew it was brilliant! I also knew that as soon as I listed it the design would be vulnerable to being copied.
While the concept seemed pretty simple, no one had done it yet. I'm not gonna lie, I was very proud of the design.
So late last year I dropped over $1,000 and spent countless hours working with our intellectual property lawyer to get the design patented. Its a pretty big and very expensive venture. So, once we went patent pending I started listing the lockets to help me try and raise the money it would take to finalize the patent, $3,000.
And I was slowly but steadily getting to that goal. Ok, very slowly.
Then several weeks ago I saw my design in another artist's shop. This happened just a week after I lost my wedding ring, my car decided to give up and my grandfather passed away. This design was my baby, an idea that I spent 2 years growing. Needless to say I was crushed. It was a rough couple of weeks.
So, I sent a very friendly e-mail over letting the artist know that we had the design as patent pending. She essentially replied letting us know that until the patent was finalized she was going to continue to use the design. Now I was crushed and a little disheartened with humanity.VLL is a very small business. Its really just me working hard to support my family. We are not a big company that can deal with big hits to its designs. So this was really bad news.
But you know me, I love pulling myself up from my bootstraps.
So I will be listing several $35 lockets {they originally start at $48} every week until I can raise the $3,000.00 to finalize the patent on the design I've really put so much into.
So, if you can please lend us a hand:
In return you will get a beautiful, hand sculpted locket piece and so much gratitude and Vulva Love from myself. And if all you can do is share this with your FB friends or pin it, anything to just help us get the word out there, know that we truly appreciate your support.With Vulva Love,
Jessica Marie
Owner, Artista Feminista
*please note:
-We are not trying to patent the idea of making Vulva art or even Vulva pendants. We love that there are women all over the world picking up the Vulva Love vibe and making it there own. We just want to protect our original locket design. That's it. We want every Vulva artist to support one another, make their own beautiful and unique designs and move the Vulva Love movement to a whole new level. But we can't do that by stepping on one another. We have to work together.
3 comments:
We want to handle this in the way we would want to be treated if we were the other artist. We all have to start somewhere, and I get that.
So we won't be releasing their info because we don't want them to have to deal with nasty e-mails and insults. Plus, just getting angry and lashing out only ever makes the problem worse.
So we are going to try to raise the money to finalize the patent and then very quickly and as kindly as possible have only the pieces that violate the design removed.
So please, don't send over any hate mail or poo via USPS {which I have to admit, totally made me laugh}. If you want to support us just spread the word.
Thank you again for all of your love and support, you ladies are the best.
I will spread this like wild fire. It makes disheartens me that this "artist" has this black of a heart.
Wasn't hard to figure out, but it's a shame that that artist can't elect to go the fair route. I applaud you for this move to push up the patent finalization. And by the way, their artistry doesn't compare to yours...
Post a Comment