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I was contacted today by a past customer. She has fallen in love with a particular bedroom set that is made in the UK. She has been able to buy a couple of parts of the set but the two 4 drawer dressers she wants are not available for sale to the US. She has investigated ways around this but has come up dry.
Here's the question - she has asked me if I would be willing to build replicas of the dresser for her. I would be working primarily from pictures to her dimensions and I could pay a visit to her home to see the pieces already purchased. Although the pieces might vary slightly in overall dimensions, they would be copies of someone else's design. Do you see an issue with this? Is building something really close to someone's design infringement of any kind? (I should note, this is from a large manufacturer, not an individual artist)
I've built a bunch of stuff that was designed by others like Stickley, but his designs are practically generic at this ppoint. I did build a table designed by Darrell Peart, but I asked him first. Usually, I think, so long as you don't try and pass it off as an original you are OK.
Your thoughts?
Oh, BTW - not even sure I can take the job. Although time and money are not an issue for her, the complexity of the build might be a little over my head.
Here's the question - she has asked me if I would be willing to build replicas of the dresser for her. I would be working primarily from pictures to her dimensions and I could pay a visit to her home to see the pieces already purchased. Although the pieces might vary slightly in overall dimensions, they would be copies of someone else's design. Do you see an issue with this? Is building something really close to someone's design infringement of any kind? (I should note, this is from a large manufacturer, not an individual artist)
I've built a bunch of stuff that was designed by others like Stickley, but his designs are practically generic at this ppoint. I did build a table designed by Darrell Peart, but I asked him first. Usually, I think, so long as you don't try and pass it off as an original you are OK.
Your thoughts?
Oh, BTW - not even sure I can take the job. Although time and money are not an issue for her, the complexity of the build might be a little over my head.