Working against the law 11/17/2020

Two years have passed since a work colleague visited Instagram accounts to find who was using the words she had registered as a trademark.

She stopped at our @tempodifesta and pointed out to us that we couldn’t use the words “party in box” and every time she found the hashtag #festainscatola she asked us not to use it to sell our products.

After receiving this signposting, I made a search in order to know if she could be right about the use of the trademark “party in box”: it seemed so unreal to me that three simple and familiar words could have been registered and in fact it is a trademark.

One of our photos where she had found the prohibited hashtag advertised a customized lollipop with a Dumbo drawing. The lady in question, in addition to signposting what she already had, claimed that her Company does not use Disney characters because of copyright pointing out directly to Disney that these characters (Dumbo) belong to them and not to us. I understand that the lady in question wanted to protect her trademark, but I believe the way she handled the issue was a little unprofessional; it would have been enough to write a private message explaining her motives without publicly writing in each post where she found the famous hashtag and not be so despicable to report us directly to Disney☹️

Decisions to make, extreme changes.

This is not what made me make the decisions I knew would decrease my sales a little. Obviously after this signposting, I went to see who was this nice colleague and I stopped a moment in a post she had written in her Facebook page. She talked about the respect to the rules, the lessons that we, as mothers, give our kids; it said they didn’t use characters with copyright in their “party in box”, etc, etc... for that to be true and what she does... I don’t know, but... I thought I was really breaking the law and immediately after I began to delete every party kit that had a copyright character from my website.

I had never thought about it before, in fact I didn’t see it as an illegal act, maybe because there wasn’t this much competition: party kits in Italy were basically unknown until just a few years ago (around 2017) and I didn’t look at the North American colleagues as my competitors, in fact, it was something else until the dear Italian friends discovered this world and exploited it from everywhere.

I didn’t stop there, I made research, studies, investigations, consulting, etc., to be able to use the characters in compliance with the laws but unfortunately this was not possible, too much money, to many characters following a trend. Unfortunately, eliminating the copyright characters from the website has decreased the sales.

The new path.

We have taken another path: we have created our own characters inspired in the original ones and to tell you the truth, they are even more beautiful. That’s how TDF follows a unique style with a personal touch but, above all, it doesn’t break the law.

I am telling you all this because recently a soap bubble manufacturer company contacted us, this time to point out that we were forging their product. WHAT???? My eyes went wide open when I opened the email. As usual, I did not stop there, I wanted to know how and why was I making the forgery, besides the representative of the company in question continued to state that all the soap bubbles used were 100% theirs.

Internet searches, verifications, investigations, consulting, etc. It turns out that placing a label on an existing product becomes a forgery??!! Things change if you are the ones who place the labels. In other words, you can purchase from us only the labels which you will later place in the corresponding products or purchase the printable one. So again, organize the “party in box” products or festa in scatola (translation to Italian) to not break the law and be coherent with the principles and values of our Company.

The story with the soap bubbles is a little longer but it’s not worth going into so many details, the fact is that these kind of experiences leave me a lesson, they open my eyes and allow me to fix the situation if I make a mistake and I appreciate them coming forward to point out to me certain things that I would not have known on my own.

The party world has become an open and full of opportunities world, there are many ladies who have made this her jobs, but unfortunately not as it should be, anybody can open a Facebook page and start selling their “creations” with their prices “in private” but few have the courage to open a website or shop and pay taxes, do everything in an orderly manner, show prices, create invoices, pay hosting and all that is behind a real company... sales have decreased, disloyal competition has increased, but, you know what? It’s ok with me, as owner of Tempo di Festa, I am proud to tell you that we have been operating in the customized party and party planner industry since 2008 and above all we are a stable company with very strong principles and values that respects the law and complies with its obligations and does not hide behind the counter working irregularly.

Remember that when you buy a Tempo di Festa product, you are not just buying quality, but also the dedication and love we put in each design and in each product. As a buyer, you are not at risk in relation to security, fraud, payments and privacy. Our information is clearly visible to everyone, you know where to find us and how to contact us.

The others can continue to do what they are doing, with no doubt the sun shines for everyone, but there is nothing more satisfying than living with the tranquility of knowing that you are doing what is correct.