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I got a nasty surprise in my inbox today. It seems that Zazzle has removed one of my Halloween designs over a trademark violation.

Seeing as how I go out of my way to avoid trademark violations when I put together my shirt designs, I knew this had to be a mistake. Imagine my shock when I found out that some attorney named James Lindon has actually gone out of his way to trademark the netspeak phrase “OMFG.” It looks like he’s been making the rounds on the net today, handing out cease and desist letters to different print-on-demand services (I had the same design up at Skreened.com, and it looks like they’ve deleted it there to). Last I checked, almost all the Zazzle products with OMFG printed on them had been taken down. The sellers who have been affected – myself included – are understandably pissed. So I guess products printed with the letters OMFG in any context are apparently off limits to everyone on the planet except him. Maybe he plans on quitting his practice to peddle his “OH MY FUCKING GOD” brand of lube, butt plugs and ball gags or something. Maybe he’s just a douche with too much time on his hands.

Or maybe he’s stumbled onto a secret formula for making money the easy way:

Step 1: Trademark a ubiquitous, generic word or phrase that no right-minded person would ever think was trademarked.

Step 2: Troll the internet for any print-on-demand (POD) product with that word printed on it.

Step 3: Track down the seller, who is likely designing for a POD as a hobby or to make ends meet, and thus is the perfect target for a lawsuit since they likely don’t have the resources to defend themselves.

Step 4: Profit.

But come on. No one would ever go to such lengths just to make a couple of bucks, right? Seriously, what trademarked products are Lindon “defending” by forcing all these deletions? I see no evidence of Mr. Lindon’s swank line of AOL-esque designer shirts anywhere, so I have doubts about his intentions with all the lawyering he’s been doing. Maybe he should be added to this list of fine, upstanding asshats.

If by any chance you’re reading this, Mr. Lindon, I tried to contact you to get your thoughts on the matter but – SURPRISE! – your email form is broken. So I’ll just leave the following as an open letter to you:

Dear Mr. Lindon,

Love,
Me

There’s a Halloween challenge going on over at the Superheroes of Drawing, Illustration and World Domination group at RedBubble, and I thought I’d give it a shot. Despite my dubious (read: laughable) inking skills on the original sketch, I think it came out pretty good, and I figure this creature is suitably hideous for Halloween. I really like the eye in the tongue for some reason or other.

Check out the entries here.

Buy the shirt here.

Boo.

Woke up this morning to a real treat: Pseudospring is now one of the featured works in the International Superheroes of Drawing group at RedBubble. Awesome. Thanks gang! What a great way to start off the day.

My shirt “Enlightenment” got featured on the front page at Skreened! Not sure if it’ll translate into more sales, but it’s cool to get noticed anyhow. Thanks guys!

For my first post on my new blog on my new site, I’ll begin with a word of thanks. I started working full time a few years ago and I pretty much let my artistic endeavors fall by the wayside. I didn’t have the drive, the inspiration or the time to commit myself to art the way I did when I had an extra twelve hours to spare every day. Then about a month ago I decided to upload some designs to a site called RedBubble.com. The ensuing flood of views, feedback and support from the fantastic community there was unexpected and heartening, and the other artwork I saw made me want to pick up the pencil one more time. I’d forgotten how good it felt to simply create. I’ve even gone back to some of my old unfinished drawings from years ago and started working on them again. Then I went a step further and built this site to replace the old crappy one I removed ages ago.

So to anyone from RedBubble who might be reading this, let me say “Thank you.” I still don’t have the spare time that I used to have, but I now have the drive and the inspiration.