Claire's Accessories rips off designs then shuts its Facebook wall against complaints

Maybe a slightly girlie topic for this forum but bear with me

Here's the linkage to the independent jewellery designer who posted a blog entry on her site after discovering several of her designs have been copied by high street retailer Claire's Accessories, and manufactured in China for sale in British shops.

http://www.tattydevine.com/blog/2012...he-difference/

Looking at the pictures you have to wonder at the brass neck of Claire's.

Questions:
Is it legal?
Is it moral?

And, from a public relations point of view, has Claire's shot itself in the foot by deleting rather a lot of critical comments from its Facebook wall and then closing the wall completely? Especially when they can't close their Twitter feed to mentions. If you Tweet, try looking up mentions for @ClairesStores, there are a lot of very angry people out there right now ...

Saw this trending before and this is apparently not the first time they have done such a thing. It's not moral and I am unsure about law but I presume they would be at risk of a lawsuit, the original design has a copyright.

Urban Outfitters reaped a whirlwind for a similar stunt last year. So far, Claire's seems determined to ride it out, if their cack-handed approach to social media management is anything to go by. I wonder how long the Twitter storm will persist and whether Claire's will crack under pressure?

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Damien

Saw this trending before and this is apparently not the first time they have done such a thing. It's not moral and I am unsure about law but I presume they would be at risk of a lawsuit, the original design has a copyright.

Yeah, but could a small independant designer afford to take them on? Even where Large companies are guilty of breaking the law, they can afford to employ enough lawyers to delay the case and make it impractical for an individual or small company to challenge them.

It's a real pity, but despite what may be right, Claire's does have might to fall back on.

The designer hopefully can take a crumb of comfort from the fact that the storm of outrage on Twitter shows no sign of abatement and Claire's worthless excuse of a PR department is still being kept busy banning former customers from their Facebook page.

I love it when companies begin to realise they can't do social media only when it suits them...

Off-topic but this is an example of using social media really well by the Oxford Street Waterstones: http://twitter.com/#!/WstonesOxfordSt