Paperchase forced to deny it 'plagiarised' British artist’s work after Twitter campaign

Paperchase, the stationery company, have been forced to deny claims it “stole” art designs from a small British designer, amid allegations it plagiarised her work.

A design by the artist (left) and one of the bags she claims are on sale in Paperchase. Paperchase forced to deny it 'plagiarised' British artist’s work after Twitter campaign
A design by the artist, left, and the bags she claims are on sale in Paperchase, right. The company denies it copied her design

The independent artist, who calls herself “Hidden Eloise”, claims the company stole and "badly traced" one of her designs before using them to decorate notebooks, tote bags and albums and selling them throughout the UK.

The 28 year-old, from London, claimed she contacted the mutli-million pound company about her concerns, which were ignored – an allegation the company strenuously denied.

After the topic became one of the most “tweeted” on Twitter, the micro-blogging site, on Thursday afternoon, the company was forced to issue an extraordinary statement denying the “serious” claims.

Paperchase, which has more than 100 stores across the UK, denied it had engaged in plagiarism and told The Daily Telegraph that it bought in “good faith” the designs from an unnamed, but “reputable” outside design agency.

Timothy Melgund, its chief executive, said it took the allegations seriously when the artist contacted the company in November as it had a strict policy of responding to all complaints.

He said they investigated them, “placed considerable pressure on the agency” – who denied it had been lifted - and found the allegations were unsubstantiated. He refused to identify the designers.

Mr Melgund, who admitted the designs were very similar, said they contacted the artist in early December and heard nothing back from her until it became a firestorm online on Thursday.

“If we had been plagiarising, I completely understand why we would have received so many emails and Twitter posts concerning our business but we haven’t,” he told The Daily Telegraph.

“We bought the designs from a reputable central London Design Studio along with a number of other designs on good faith.

“We take all reasonable precautions when we purchase our designs from companies or individuals, because, to be blunt, we want to make sure they are entitled to sell it.”

He added: “We have not done anything wrong. Our reputation is of course very important to us. We spoke at length to the Design Studio in question and they categorically denied any plagiarism.

“What upsets us as a whole is that a lot of our good customers have been angered by this and there is no reason for it.

“We spend a long time building up our reputation for creating dynamic and interesting stationery and then something like this happens.”

After writing about the issue on her blog on Wednesday, it was picked up by Neil Gaiman, the fantasy writer, on his Twitter page, who wrote: “Fascinating Paperchase plagiarism over at http://bit.ly/cdrzKZ . Bad Paperchase.”

With almost 1.5 million following the writer, who now lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Twitter, it quickly became a viral story on the Microblogging site.

Hundreds of people then started “tweeting” about it and calling on the company to stop selling the designs.

Others called for a product boycott.

The artist claimed the company had “stolen, badly traced and stuck in front of a poor (and separately traced) mushroom that now decorates untold numbers of notebooks, albums and tote bags sold throughout the UK through Paperchase and Amazonco.uk”.

The artist, who sells artwork via Etsy and other independent online stores, then claimed she asked the stationery company to stop selling the work but they ignored her, which the company denied.

“Not only has Paperchase ignored (me) but it is now selling even more products featuring the plagiarised artwork,” she claimed.

“So thank you Paperchase for making a killing out of my hard work! And an especially strong, bone-crackling bear hug to the anonymous designer that badly traced my art and then denied it!

“If there ever was any doubt that this design is copied from my artwork, my lovable partner made sure to dispel the mist through way of joyous animation!”

Mr Melgund said the issue raised serious concerns about the “powers, and there in the danger of Twitter”.

“I am sure it can be beneficial but if you get an untruth (on it) it can be very dangerous,” he said.

He admitted the company had received hundreds of complaints, some of them “very aggressive”.

According to records filed at Companies House last year, the business posted a pre-tax profit of £6.5million, which was down by about 20 per cent.

The artist did not respond to repeated requests from The Daily Telegraph for comment.