Elsom and General Pants in Actual Pain over plagiarism accusations - Exclusive

The Internet in general, and social networking in particular, are proving a powerful tool when it comes to smaller labels' battles against intellectual property theft. Brands that could never raise the funds to engage in a legal battle can at least now name and shame those that are ripping them off (although the consequences of that can cause their own problems).

So it was with spooky Seattle t-shirt label Actual Pain, who discovered their popular 'Acid Wolf' tee print had taken a trip down under, winding up on a shirt by Found, Sam Elsom's General Pants-exclusive diffusion label.

The brand announced their discovery over Twitter, and soon a small hoard of Australian tweeters began to hassle General Pants on Actual Pain's behalf.

General Pants have now removed the offending singlet, which they called the 'Warewolf Singlet', from their site.

The decision to remove the tee shows some concern on General Pants' behalf. Of the incident, Craig King, CEO of General Pants told TheVine.com.au:

“Upon receiving a complaint from ACTUAL PAIN over a week ago, General Pants Co pulled the t-shirt in question from all of our stores. General Pants then facilitated a discussion between the Supplier FOUND and the designer ACTUAL PAIN who made the complaint. This situation was rapidly and fairly resolved between FOUND and ACTUAL PAIN with all parties communicating that they were satisfied with the outcome.  Given this occurred over a week ago it has therefore been surprising that ACTUAL PAIN has turned to social networks with any grievance as the situation was formally resolved. General Pants Co is firmly committed to sourcing and selling original merchandise. We work with a select group of Suppliers with commercial agreements in place to support this mandate. In the event of situations like the current one arising (which happens rarely) we are committed to acting immediately to ensure our customer proposition and commercial reputation is never compromised.”

Actual Pain's designer and owner, TJ Cowgil, has responded to the General Pants Co quote, saying:

"There was never "resolve" between me and Found and GPC. Nobody was pulling the "Warewolf" design off the site. That's all I wanted. I never got a single email back from GPC and Sam Elsom didn't return my last two emails. GPC was CC'd on those.

I don't give a fuck what that shitty store says in some bullshit press release to your magazine. I got it pulled from their site. Quote me on that."

The similarity between the two singlets is undeniable. The Found wolf does not have the same red eyes as Actual Pain's design, but the tab of acid on its protruding tongue is still in place. Actual Pain have not yet confirmed where they sourced the original image of the wolf.

While fashion brands often have little recourse against plagiarism of designs, this is not the case for textile makers and graphic designers. Both textiles and prints are subject to stronger protections under Australian and United States law, although going after copyright infringers across international borders is a very expensive, time consuming task.

It is interesting to note, in all the recent uproar about SOPA and PIPA, that issues of copyright are just as problematic offline as on. Particularly in Australia, where there is a long history of questionable design practice within fashion and accessories.

Thanks to Cecil Hotbake for the tip.