20 March 06
Oh no they di-unt! Part 2
Almost a year ago I posted about the cease and desist letter the local Stitch’n‘Bitch group’s Cafe Press shop received. Essentially this badly organized company in New York was claiming that no one else could use the phrase “Stitch’n‘Bitch”. (They’re now claiming they invented the phrase even though there are hundreds of women who have been in groups with that name since at least World War II.)
A friend runs one of the many Stitch’n‘Bitch groups which have had to stop selling t-shirts on Cafe Press (to offset site hosting fees, we’re talking earnings of less than $100 per year) as well as one of the yahoo email groups which had to change the name of the group and delete all emails which contain either the word “stitch” or the word “bitch”.
As a joke, I thought it might be a good way to see exactly what these “trademarked products” looked like and make my friend laugh about something that has quickly ceased to be funny. But somehow she still manages to laugh at them, which is good.
Shortly before Christmas I placed an order for their knitting needles. Their “trade marked knitting needles” are seen below. Yes I got this image from their website. Without their permission. Considering that this is a parody, it’s perfectly legal for me to use it.
I received a short pair of size 9 knitting needles with the Susan Bates logo printed clearly on the end. (I wonder if Susan Bates approved having someone put their “trademark” on needles they designed?) They came wrapped in 4 pieces of paper inside of a bubble-wrapped envelope. I thought it was odd so I removed the rubber band and saw the letter above (first image on the left) from Elissa Meyrich, Creative Director of SewFastSewEasy. I snorted. Honestly, I did.
The other three pages were color inkjet prints of my previous post with pink highlighting in case I didn’t remember something I’d written 7 months earlier. The letter from Elissa appears to have been printed in 24 point type (maybe she thinks I’m blind?) and then faxed. So I didn’t get the original letter, just the faxed copy of it. Or maybe it was photocopied? Who knows, maybe they sent the original off to their lawyers.
To comply with Elissa’s request, I’m going to “show them to all all your [my] knitting friends.”
But I’m going to recommend you not buy them. It cost me $7.50 (thankfully shipping was included) and it’s a size that I’ll never use. Size 9’s? I’ve been knitting off and on since I was 15 and I’ve never used a size 9 needle. What an odd size I thought and my friend suggested this size was chosen because they happen to be the same size as a pencil. Which means they were able to send the needles to a company which paints logos onto pencils. And it is just printed ink on the metal which means that if I were to use the needles, their precious “trade marked” logo would disappear before I could finish my first eyelash garter scarf.
But at least it wasn’t a sticker with their logo printed on it. Which is exactly what I expected.
So thanks for the personal note, Elissa. I hope you like my “review” of your “trade marked knitting product”. I know I’ve enjoyed laughing at them for the past few months.
Comments
- *snort*
— Roni on Mar 20, 02:27 pm
- holy cow, what an anal retentive bitch. an anal retentive bitch with a really shitty business plan.
— shechemist on Mar 24, 09:50 pm
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