Street Artist Claiming Zara Stole Designs

Patrick Waldo, a New York-based street artist, claims that international retail chain Zara copied his iconic graffiti art in a T-shirt. Waldo made a name for himself by drawing the word "moustache" on the faces of New York City subway ads in a distinct, swirly font until he was caught and arrested in 2011.

Apparently the street artist's trademark tagging became so recognizable, that everyone on the Internet took notice when Zara produced a line of T-shirts with the same design. "There's no doubt in my mind that Zarastole my design," Waldo told the Huffington Post. "It's not as if I came up with the idea and then kept it to myself. I put my moustache on thousands of posters all over New York City for well over a year. They got press before I was arrested." Waldo is apparently seeking money from the fast-fashion retailer as credit for the design. 

Apparently this isn't the first time Zara took an artist's work and turned it into a sartorial piece. In 2010, a French blogger claimed the chain stole her photos and turned them into T-shirts. In 2007, another street artist claimed Zara also ripped off his designs. For our non-lawyer readers, street artists do have intellectual property rights. For example, if a studio is planning to shoot a movie in a street location whose background contains a wall with a major art design, their in-house counsel is responsible for obtaining a valid license from the artist to have the design appear in the scene. The street artist does have a valid claim for copyright infringement if their design is taken without permission. And for a company as big as Zara, it would not have been difficult nor expensive to reach out to Waldo and other street artists to obtain a valid license to reproduce their designs on T-shirts.