Bob Basset and Design Toscano Settle Copyright Dispute

On December 18, 2012, a blogger known as Jaborwhalky, a big fan of Bob Basset products and a regular customer of the online store Design Toscano, came upon an item by the Ukrainian studio listed at the website. Excited by the collaboration between his favorite designer and a major art seller, Jaborwhalky congratulated the artist. It turned out, however, that Bob Basset never listed any of their works at Design Toscano, so the item had clearly been made from a stolen Bob Basset design.

Jaborwhalky wrote about it on Cory Doctorow’s blog Boing Boing, and soon the news reached the management of Design Toscano. In an official letter, the company explained that the work’s author was a new sculptor with whom they had not dealt previously and were not going to deal in the future. Design Toscano President Mike Stopka and Bob Basset have come to an agreement, whereby the Ukrainian designer’s authorship be restored and the studio be reimbursed for the inconvenience.

Bob Basset thanks Jaborwhalky, Cory Doctorow, and their many fans for bringing this situation to light, and Design Toscano for their straightforward and laudable approach to copyright issues.