SINGAPORE - A Singaporean has been ordered to pay US$900,000 (S$1.2 million) in damages to artist Kaws by a district court in New York, after being found guilty of wilfully infringing the artist’s copyright.
The ruling by the United States Southern District Court of New York was passed on May 2.
According to court documents seen by The Straits Times, the lawsuit was filed by Mr Brian Donnelly, better known by his alias Kaws, on Nov 18, 2021. The defendants named in the suit were Mr Dylan Leong and businesses run by him – The Penthouse Theory and The Penthouse Collective.
Besides the damages, the court also ordered Mr Leong to stop selling products purporting to be original Kaws merchandise or using Kaws-registered trademarks to market or sell them.
Mr Donnelly had accused Mr Leong and his businesses of producing and selling replicas of the artist’s work with nine types of goods, comprising plush dolls, vinyl figurines, ashtrays, skateboards, canvases, posters, sculptures, rugs and neon lights.
Mr David Arkin, a project assistant at Kaws Inc, stated in court documents that Mr Leong had “154 counterfeit items offered for sale... priced between US$59 and US$3,299”.
Both Mr Arkin and Mr Donnelly said that identifying counterfeit goods and issuing takedown notices cost their company at least US$40,000 each year, with the latter stating that “counterfeit goods chill the market for his original work because purchasers fear inadvertently acquiring a counterfeit”.
Each of the nine product categories sold on Mr Leong’s websites was found to be in violation of two trademarks, with the court awarding US$50,000 for each violation, totalling a sum of US$900,000 that the court stated as “appropriate to justly punish” Mr Leong and compensate Mr Donnelly.
Mr Donnelly and his team had initially sought a claim of US$2 million for each of the 18 trademark infringements.
The court found that Mr Leong’s acts of producing and selling the counterfeit products had constituted a wilful and malicious injury to Kaws and his property.
Mr Leong’s websites had stated that the products sold were “custom hand-reworked reproductions due to the low prices we are able to provide”, which demonstrated that he knew and intended to sell counterfeit and infringing goods, according to court documents.
Checks by ST reveal that of Mr Leong’s two businesses, only the website of The Penthouse Theory is still in operation. The website still mentions Kaws under a list of artists whose works it purports to sell, but the page could not be accessed when clicked.
Artwork purportedly by British street artist Banksy was also on sale on the website.
A search of the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority database shows that both of Mr Leong’s companies were registered to the same address in Shangri-La Park, with The Penthouse Collective no longer registered.
This is not the first time that Mr Donnelly’s artwork has been embroiled in legal action. In 2021, the display of a 42m-long inflatable work, titled Kaws: Holiday, at the former Float@Marina Bay was halted by a court order.
The event’s organiser, Hong Kong-based creative studio AllRightsReserved, was sued by non-profit organisation The Ryan Foundation, which cited breach of intellectual property rights and breach of confidence at the time.
The court order was lifted two days later.
ST has contacted Mr Donnelly’s and Mr Leong’s lawyers for comment.
