Fairey, Obama HOPE artist, threatens "baby"

Shepard Fairey, creator of the Obama HOPE poster and other derivative designs, has been a party to several recent copyright disputes. The AP says he ripped off one of the their freelance photographer's work for the Obama poster. Fairey, in turn, has turned his lawyers on a Texas artist who mocked Fairey's OBEY stickers by adorning them with a mask. Background and links here.

But now, the graffiti-artist-turned-adman has staked a claim to the word "obey." In a bizarre case in Pittsburgh, Fairey's legal team has swooped down on a Pittsburgh Steeler fan, Larkin Werner, who had a small side business marketing kewpie dolls, dubbed Steelerbabies, who utter catchy pro-Steeler phrases on the doll's website, including "Obey Steelerbaby!" This was apparently too much for Fairey. He called in his legal SWAT team to threaten the website that was handling orders for Werner's babies. Details at the Pittsburgh City Paper.

Fairey's action against Werner is based on his assertion of a trademark of the word, "obey." Copyright and trademark lawyers question whether the claim would hold up since it would be hard to argue that consumers would confuse Werner's dolls with Fairey's products. Werner, without the financial resources for a legal battle, was forced to fold his operation and retire Steelerbaby. Says Werner, a partner in a graphic-design firm, "I didn't think I was ripping him off ... There is no graphic connection to [Fairey's artwork]. We don't even share the same market... [Fairey] has become sort of what he was rebelling against. He's ripped off political posters for a long time without attributing the source." (Thanks to reader PBW, Werner's brother, for the tip.)