Koons’ Bubble Bursts as Balloon Dog Suit Settles

As previously posted, in December 2010, Koons instructed his lawyers to write a cease and desist letter to Park Life, a San Francisco gallery selling balloon dog book ends, and imm Living, their Canadian distributor. Park Life were fairly bullish in their response both on their website and via their lawyer – who launched a declaratory action against Koons requesting a jury trial and a judgment that the Park Life book ends do not infringe Koons’ sculptures. The confident response included an entire section dedicated to a history of balloon animal making and was at times faintly hilarious “as any clown can attest, no one owns the idea of making a balloon dog”. There were even rumours of the lawyer collecting a range of expert witnesses who could demonstrate their balloon modelling skills in court.

Under the settlement, Koons is reported to have agreed not to pursue any claims against Park Life or imm Living so long as Koons’ name is not used to sell their goods (something neither business was doing before Koons made the connection in December). The irony is that Koons himself made the connection with his letter before action and now Park Life’s balloon dog bookends are reportedly “flying off the shelves”.

Source: Art Info

1709 Blog Gets Visual

For a thought provoking and insightful analysis of such diverse topics as:

• the artist’s resale right,
• Jeff Koons’ balloon dog shenanigans; and
• artistic meaning in the digital environment,

see Hugo Cox’s recent post on the 1709 blog here.

Koons Sues Over Balloons

Jeff Koons has historically tended to be on the receiving end of copyright lawsuits – most famously in relation to his puppies sculpture.

However, just before Christmas Koons decided to take the initiative… His lawyers sent a cease and desist letter to Park Life a San Francisco shop for selling balloon dog book ends.

The letter has sparked a great deal of debate across the internet with many finding Koons’ approach somewhat hypocritical given his previous appropriations of other people's copyright work.

A&A has been particularly fascinated by the uncertainty as to the exact monopoly Koons is claiming in balloon images. Are children’s birthday party entertainers at risk of receiving similar letters? The bookend and the Koons sculpture are undoubtedly similar but there does not appear to be evidence that the bookend copied the sculpture – it could so much more easily be based on the balloon animals Koons copied in the first place.

It will be interesting to see if Koons decides to take this further and issue proceedings. At the moment, the shop in question, is being fairly bullish. It initially pulled all references to the balloon dog both in store and online but has now chosen a different tack and the balloon dog appears along with a message: “BALLOON DOG BOOKEND: please call Jeff Koons’ Lawyers.”

You can read more about the case here.
Source: Art Info