The lack of copyright registration of indigenous embroidery allows large brands to plagish their designs
In 2015, singer Susana Harp denounced through her social networks that in a San Diego store a typical blouse of Santa María Tlahuitoltepec, Oaxaca, was sold under the French brand Isabel Marant.The news spread and accused the plagiarism.The pressure was such that the French designer acknowledged that the design actually came from a Mexican community and did not intend to take over him.
Although that case was perhaps one of the best known, it is not the only one.Eight brands of clothing, even international, plagiarized designs from indigenous communities of Oaxac.
The brands range from the American brand Madewell, the Spanish Zara or the Mexican Pineda Covalín who have reproduced traditional communities of communities in Mexico.
The first record of a plagiar.The design of this same garment was also used by Pineda Covalín in 2014.
In 2016, Rhapsodia copied the San Antonino Castillo Velasco blouse, and Madewell El Huipil de San Andrés Larrainzar and the San Antonino Castillo Velasco blouse.
Last year three more cases occurred: Zara plagiarized Aguacatenango blouse, Chiapas.Intropia, the brocade of San Juan Bautista Tlacoatzintepec, Oaxaca, and Mango, the Doria Tenangos.
These brands did not give the credit of the brocades to the communities, nor worked with the artisans, they only took their designs and reproduced them in their garments.However, the debate is going through a fact: none of the designs of the communities is registered under copyright.
Although this has a reason for being, explains Kathia Loyzaga, director of Impact Communication.Knowledge about brocades and designs is passed from one generation to another among the communities and is a sign of distinction between each town.For them, there is no western idea of intellectual property because knowledge is from the community.
In addition, another problem would be how to determine who owns a traditional design.
“To determine the ownership of copyright, the origin should be seen.An option could be collective property, but not finding the origin, that is where the right is broken and (complicates) to whom we give the ownership of the right, ”explains Carlos Blanco, a law specialist at the Tecnológico de Monterrey.
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Although a possibility of defense of indigenous communities, he says, it could be through international cultural heritage treaties, which appeals to the moral right of the authors.That is, if a brand uses a traditional design, the brand would not have to pay it, but to make a public recognition about the community of origin.
Adriana Aguerrebere, impact director, considers that there should be some protection mechanism for collective heritage, such as traditional designs, but recognizes that it would be a very complex process because I would have to register design by design and “obviously being aArtisanal creation, each artisan has its own design, is a unique piece.Then it contrasts and would become such an exhaustive and even expensive process that would be almost impossible ”.
Rather, he says, the protection of the heritage should also be a collective work, that is, that the society itself denounces the plagiarEthical trade.
Society knows about plagiarism, at least it has the opportunity to make the decision to consume or not those products and that, he says, is a way to fight the plagiarism of international brands.
Successful cases
As an organization, impact seeks to influence several forms in the communities, first: make visible the work of artisans, which recognizes their work and second, bringing designers or small entrepreneurs who seek to market the products but paying a fair price, with artisans, under the basic principle of respecting your work.
Thanks to this idea, projects have prospered in the six years that have an impact.For example with the designer Carmen Rion, who works with artisans from San Juan Cancuc.
They, for example, proposed colored pallets and the composition of the canvases with a brocade.The designer was reviewing the results and feedback to make new canvases designs, such as collaborative work, explains Kathia Loyzaga.
The designer Andrea Velasco also works with artisans from the community of San Juan Cancuc and markets the garments in Guadalajara.Here, for example, they make different drawings of their daily lives and then spend these drawings in brocadiated tests.From these results the production of vests and dresses began.
This publication was possible thanks to the support of Kellogg Foundation
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