See the FedEx Furniture
FedEx threaten creative furniture maker with trademark action
In the beginning was a creative idea, now a trademark dispute threatens. This bitter experience has had to be endured by an American programmer possessed of ingenuity. Jose Avila knocked up some furniture made from boxes from the delivery service FedEx and furnished his new flat with it. After one of his friends who was enthused with this idea had arranged for his interior design to be publicized over the Internet, a caution from FedEx landed on Avila’s doorstep. The delivery service threatened a trademark dispute because it perceived its trademark rights to be infringed and demanded that the web site fedexfurniture.com should be shut down immediately.
Avila who, after his move to Arizona, had found himself temporarily paying rent on two separate properties and who had made his FedEx furniture primarily out of fun, but also as a result of an urgent financial crisis, showed himself to be surprised by FedEx’s behavior. ‘I am in favor of FedEx. I send everything by FedEx and I prefer FedEx as their boxes are so sturdy’, he said to the online journal Wired News. This latter statement is also shown by his interior design which, among others, consists of a box bed, a box eating table and a box couch.
And also a box work table at which the programmer, so he says, works several hours daily, proving the stability of the packaging material. Avila stressed moreover that he never had any intention of earning money from his internet site, or of profiting in any way from the FedEx name. The delivery service is certainly of a different opinion and are speaking of copyright and trademark infringement.
In consideration of the brimming-over of the dispute, the programmer has consequently had to seek out legal assistance. He is now represented by the Center of Internet and Society of Stanford University, which up to now has refused all approaches. Whether it will really come to legal proceedings, remains to be seen. In any case, it seems improbable that FedEx will make use of the robust furnishing as a marketing gimmick.
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