7 Year Itch: Part 2 - A Day Not To Celebrate

I’ve been a huge fan of Led Zeppelin since first hearing the acoustic opening strains of Stairway to Heaven on ‘Hallam Rock’ one Monday night in 1974. I was twelve.

On 27th July 2020 I received an email from Etsy’s legal department advising that three of my listings had been removed, following their receipt of a trademark infringement notice from an agency representing Superhype Tapes Ltd.

A little online research revealed this was a company set up by Jimmy Page and Peter Grant in 1968 which still held the trademark rights protecting the works of the mighty Zeppelin.

Oh dear.

I contacted the agency to question if there was any possibility of obtaining rights under licence to use the album artwork of the band I had idolised since that night in 1974.

It was dutifully explained in no uncertain terms that this could and would not happen.

What about all those online stores and market stalls selling all manner of paraphernalia adorned with iconic images from their albums? What about the guy in York and his coasters (ref. 7 Year Itch: part 1)?

It quickly seemed clear that lockdown had provided the time and breathing space for brand protection agencies to trawl the web looking for infringements, then act immediately in the interests of their clients.

I took some (informal) legal advice and quickly realised that I had no option other than to take down every potentially risky listing without delay. Overnight my Etsy and Amazon stores were reduced to a handful of products, none of which had previously generated a great deal of interest...or orders.

Over the next few days, I contacted a few agencies to in an attempt to obtain some limited rights to use some of the images they protected and even got in touch directly with two very well-known album cover artists/designers to try and obtain permission to use their work under licence. It was all to no avail, I was far too small, and the potential costs were totally prohibitive. This particular creative avenue was a dead end…and with it went a potential long term revenue stream.

To loosely paraphrase the ’Four Flames of Albion’ (Led Zeppelin) from the closing epic on their majestic untitled fourth album (the one with ‘Stairway’ on) “Crying wouldn’t help me, praying wouldn’t do me no good”.

It was time to think again…and research…and think…and research…and…

I looked for images that were out of copyright or in the public domain under Creative Commons’ licences…images I could use commercially and without restrictions. Although it was pleasantly surprising to what was out there…none of it related to album covers!

There were however some good examples of fine art by Monet, Van Goch, Rembrandt and others, and eventually found a site with digitally enhanced/remastered files of some really great and well-known pieces, high resolution and free to use…even for commercial purposes.

This was at least a starting point for restocking the Etsy and Amazon inventories and hopefully start to generate sales without fear of copyright infringement.

A reasonable start but not exactly a 'USP' or likely to attract a big enough clientele.

I then started to look deeper into at personalised products, particularly mugs (after all, I had the kit) and found a couple of really good ideas that were already out there but (IMHO) the artwork didn’t look too great, and the personalisation was limited to the recipient’s name only…surely more could be done.

This led to the development of Yellow Spade Design's personalised Tea/Coffee/Hot Chocolate etc. prescription mug.

After meticulously recreating a mock up of both sides of a standard UK NHS prescription and incorporating additional personalisation options not available anywhere else. In late September 2020 the company’s first personalised mug was launched.

As we headed into a winter overshadowed by fear, uncertainty and further lockdowns, that one product saved YSD from suffering the same fate as all too many small businesses did during the awful Covid pandemic, and it remains one of the company’s most consistently successful retail products to this day.

Just what the doctor ordered.