This is the type of thing that Consumer Reports does well, and has the budget to buy a piece from each maker and take them apart in their lab. I don't subscribe to them, but those of you that do should contact them and ask them to do a report on leather sofas and mention some of the brands you want to see. Enough of their members ask about it, perhaps they would consider doing it.
Duane Collie
Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.
I don't know if they've ever done as narrowed of a consensus study covering JUST leather furniture, but I'm fairly certain they've done best of furniture studies in the past. The problem with those studies, is they're too broad & cover just about every maker. So, you're still left walking away confused.
Duane's right tho: it never hurts to just ask. If enough of their readers do, they very well be inclined to undergo a benchmarking study of just leather furniture...the worst that can happen, is they say "no."
Duane,
Any updates from H&M regarding their next steps with Leather Shoppes? Will they issue a cease & desist & that'll be it? Or, is this a bit more serious & involved than simply issuing a sternly written letter?
I'm curious: why'd you chuckle & ONLY say what you did? Why didn't you point out the areas that were way off? As knowledgeable as you are about H&M, I'd think the temptation to point out their flaws would've been very high...however, sometimes NOT telling a shady seller how they could better their product can be just as satisfying
I'm sure that maker was dying to know what he could do to "fix" his Sundance so it'd be closer to what he's attempting at passing off as the original! He'd have left market, gone back to the factory to tweak his Sundance so that by next market he'd be in a more secure standing.
I won't get involved in this beyond notifying H&M of your findings, what will probably happen is that will just disappear from that web site in the not too distant future.
On your other point, why would I want to help someone doing a knock-off of a brand I support and sell to correct their piece? No reason to....
Duane Collie
Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.
Duane, et all: just wanted to keep everyone up to date that as of just a few minutes ago Leather Shoppes's "Sundance" series is still posted on their site with the same pictures as before...
H&M could easily have it removed by sending a DMCA takedown notice to their website host. I am assuming that the photos belong to H&M, either because they were taken by an employee or by a professional photographer under a work-for-hire contract. It sounds weird but if the goal is to have it taken off the web, using the copyrights attached to the photos would be the fastest and cheapest way by far.
The great thing about the DMCA is that you don't have to hire a lawyer or go to court, any average person can do their own request off an online template so long as they are the copyright owner. Many ISP and hosts have their own form you can fill out
Last edited by Jenny; 05-03-2016 at 11:03 AM.
Within the Leather Shoppe's web site, under the "American Heritage" Brand nearly all their Sofas and Chairs are direct copies of Hancock and Moore designs. Perhaps the industry has this phenomena often and the originating manufacturers of the designs just don't want to spend their time and money in court. Traditional H&M customers aren't exactly the type to be happy with a copy product.