Nadia Plesner Under Fire from Louis Vuitton
Nadia Plesner is an artist sickened by the media’s distractions from life and death issues like the genocide in Darfur. To take a stance, she designed the image below, printed it on t-shirts and posters, and in thanks, was handed a cease and desist letter from Louis Vuitton’s Intellectual Property Director.
Proceeds from the Simple Living campaign, which she began last October, benefited Divest for Darfur. It took approximately four months for the Vuitton camp to issue the letter demanding that Plesner stop the campaign immediately, since the bag in the design bears a resemblance to a Louis Vuitton original.
Nadia elaborates on her inspiration:
Since doing nothing but wearing designerbags and small ugly dogs appearantly is enough to get you on a magasine cover, maybe it is worth a try for people who actually deserves and needs attention.
And she clarifies:
the bag in my drawing is inspired by - and refers to - designers bags in general – not a Louis Vuitton bag.
According to Wikipedia, Louis Vuitton’s lawyers notified Ms. Plesner of the lawsuit being brought against her on April 15, 2008. Their demands are as follows:
$7,500 (5,000 Euro) for each day Ms Plesner continues to sell the Simple Life products, $7,500 for each day the original Cease and Desist letter is published on her website and $7,500 a day for using the name “Louis Vuitton” on her website. In addition, it is alleged that Louis Vuitton is demanding that the artist pays LV’s legal costs, including $15,000 to cover additional expenses the company has incurred in protecting their intellectual property rights.
Talks between the laywers of Louis Vuitton and Nadia Plesner will take place at the end of May. She has made the original cease and desist letter available to the public, along with her response.
