In Twist, Jeff Koons Claims Rights to ‘Balloon Dogs’ [View All]

[Liberal_in_LA]

In Twist, Jeff Koons Claims Rights to ‘Balloon Dogs’

By KATE TAYLOR
Published: January 19, 2011

The artist Jeff Koons has developed a distinctive style, and made a lot of money, by appropriating pop-culture imagery and mass-produced objects, from inflatable toys to vacuum cleaners and kitschy greeting cards. Over his three-decade career that approach, while helping to make him famous, has also brought accusations of exploiting other people’s copyrighted images. He has been sued for copyright violation four times, losing three of the cases.

A 10-foot-tall version of Jeff Koons's “Balloon Dog” sculpture on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
In a reversal of roles Mr. Koons is now going after two businesses that his lawyers say have violated his intellectual property rights by producing and selling bookends that resemble his famous “Balloon Dog” sculpture, 10-foot-tall versions of which have been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Versailles and acquired by major art collectors. Mr. Koons’s sculpture also comes in a 10 ½-inch version, comparable in size to the bookends.

In late December a lawyer for Mr. Koons, Peter D. Vogl of the firm Jones Day, sent cease-and-desist letters to Park Life, a San Francisco gallery and store that sells the bookends, and Imm-Living, a Toronto company that manufactures them.

Jamie Alexander, a co-owner of Park Life, and Rod Byrnes, a lawyer for Imm-Living, both rejected the idea that the bookends, which are made of painted resin and come in matte colors — unlike Mr. Koons’s reflective “Balloon Dog” — were a copy. The bookends are also slightly less bulbous than the Koons.

Mr. Alexander said that he had not responded to the cease-and-desist letter, and that he is still selling the bookends.


A 10-foot-tall version of Jeff Koons's “Balloon Dog” sculpture on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/20/arts/design/20suit.html