Discount department store chain Target has agreed to stop stocking a product after it was accused of ripping off the design of a Queensland small business.
The design practices of Wesfarmers-owned retail chain Target have been called into question after claims it ripped off the work of a Queensland small business. Sharon Hunter, owner of Queensland-based Emondo Kids, was surprised to see a product "very similar" to her best-selling Karri Koala plate on sale at Target stores nationally last month.
Ms Hunter said Target denied copying the design but has agreed to stop selling the product once its current batch of stock runs out. "The koala character is our brand and to see it in a big corporation like Target is devastating," Ms Hunter said. "There are slight differences but you can see it is very much the same."Ms Hunter designed the koala character in 2016 and still has the original hand sketches on pieces of paper. She wanted to encourage fussy eaters with a range of kids dinnerware, so found a manufacturer to make the Karri Koala plate from bamboo and started selling it online and wholesaling it to other stores. I am a small business owner from Queensland with a small child. I simply could not afford prolonged litigation.The Emondo Kids product sells for $43, while Target's version, which comes with a matching knife and fork, sells for $19."It just completely undervalues, on both price and quality, my product," Ms Hunter said. "To now see inferior products being offered on a large scale, based on the designs that I myself created, hurts me a lot." Emondo Kids has turnover of under $100,000 a year and Ms Hunter said, with limited funds, she felt she had little recourse against Target. Her lawyer sent a cease-and-desist letter to Target and the retailer denied copying her design but advised it would not order any further stock from its supplier. Target's version of the plate on the left and the original Emondo Kids Karri Koala plate on the right."This is the best possible outcome I could have wished for, without having to litigate against Target," Ms Hunter said. "I am a small business owner from Queensland with a small child. I simply could not afford prolonged litigation." "The next step would be to sue them and take it further but I'd have to mortgage the house and take loans and it would go on for years. What can you do?"This is not the first time Target has been accused of ripping off the work of independent designers.In the past, the retailer has been accused of
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