Sorry for the provocative title, but after a concerned reader mentioned it, I figured that it’s time to break my silence.
The details:
- A few weeks ago, I did a short write up about how excited I was that OPI is releasing a new Suede, polish Here Today Aragon Tomorrow here.
- A couple of days after, I visited Transdesign to check out their “OPI Liquidation” (if you haven’t heard about the lawsuit that OPI has filed against Transdesign, gory details here). Go ahead and check it out yourself – go to their OPI polish page. See anything familiar?
If you don’t see it, here’s a screen shot:
The same day that they placed the new OPI Suede up for sale, I sent a note to all the email addresses posted on the Transdesign website requesting that my content be removed or at the very least give credit to me. Sent the email May 22nd, and to this day, I haven’t heard back. In the past when I have had inquiries about orders directed to sales, my emails were answered promptly so I am assuming the worst – that they are just ignoring my email outright and playing blind.
I have bought polish from them before and I had no issues doing so again even after all the OPI drama. Since I live a few months a year in the US, I don’t have to pay the exorbitant hazardous material fees (imposed by the US Postal Service for shipping flammable items, like nail polish, via air) since they ship stuff within the US via ground anyway. But now that they have essentially stolen MY property (yes, I chose to use such a strong term because they HAVE used something that is not theirs – even if it’s just a bunch of written words), I now understand why OPI is suing them. They use content including text and pictures that are not theirs to use in the first place!
I also know for a fact the people behind Transdesign are not native English speakers. However, I think that the basic principle of giving someone what is due him/her, especially intellectual property, is essentially the same across all cultures, industries, and languages. Feigning ignorance or worse – just not caring at all – is unforgivable.
So until they do something about this, I would think 1 million times before ordering from them again. There are a lot of better, more reliable sellers out there that have a good grasp of what is theirs to use. I wish there was some way I could hold them accountable for their actions but I am at a loss on what to do next, to be honest. My life is already busy as it is and I don’t want to go through the hassle of legal action.
Oh, and by the way – for those of you who are thinking of boycotting OPI because of all the etailer hullabaloo in the past few weeks and siding with Trandesign as far as the earlier-mentioned lawsuit is concerned, take this into account. I encourage you to rethink your stand.
Edit: Hey, now that I think about it I may even be giving them free advertising via this post. But I just had to share and vent so…whatever.
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