[pearlescence]

Blue Nile?
Isn't it an oscommerce?

[Miriam Reed]

I like the collection. One of my favorites is the bracelet ("Eleven Natural Rubies"). I agree with Wendy that several of the pendants would look really good as enhancers. Is there a difference between "Matte Silver Tropical Flower" and "Our Matte Silver Lily" other than the size of the pearl?

[aggiep]

Last night as I was falling asleep your comment about doing the line in gold struck me again. You can do a partial gold/silver setting. If not a marriage of different metals in full, you can do Kum Boo where you literally adhere gold foil to the surface with high heat. I personally like gold and silver together. I also like Mokame Gane as the base metal used. Mokame would would look spectacular in some of your pieces. OK this is just me. I can't look at anything without my mind thinking of how I would change it. That is what I love about pearls. They give me such possibilities with their varied shapes.

[DFrey]

Hi Suzanne,
Great looking collection! If you rhodium plate everything you will lose the feeling of depth and contrast that is present in a number of the pieces now. This look is created by the contrast of high polish and matte finish on these pieces and rhodium will make everthing look chrome like and high polished. You will also lose the "handmade" look, the attention to detail that the current finish shows, and I think the current finish enhances the organic feel of the subject matter you have chosen. On the upside if you rhodium plate things will not tarnish, but there are ways of dealing with tarnish on silver.

You indicate that your rubies and sapphires are heated only. By there look especially the orange and yellow stones that they are not simply heated but are berylium treated to get those intense colors. In these silver pieces with the prices as they are I am not sure if this disclosure is essential, but if you want to disclose everything about the materials used you might want to check this out .

DFrey

[waimeamomi]

I love the idea of mixing some gold into the designs. I can see the anemone piece with gold orbs on the end of the spines. I have to decide on one, and it may take a while, but the looking is so much fun!

[jshepherd]

Originally Posted by pearlescence

Blue Nile?
Isn't it an oscommerce?

I don't think so. I would be very surprised with a company their size. But I'm not referring to the e-commerce solution. I'm referring to the design. In the Web-world, such a close copy can get a new company into hot water, especially considering the product mix is similar.

http://www.lajollapearlcompany.com/catalog/
and
http://www.bluenile.com/

There is a real chance of having Blue Nile go after the site for infringement. I think it would be a lot safer without the "floating" script in the header. Then it would not seem like such a copy.

[Heidi]

Originally Posted by jshepherd

I don't think so. I would be very surprised with a company their size. But I'm not referring to the e-commerce solution. I'm referring to the design. In the Web-world, such a close copy can get a new company into hot water, especially considering the product mix is similar.

http://www.lajollapearlcompany.com/catalog/
and
http://www.bluenile.com/

There is a real chance of having Blue Nile go after the site for infringement. I think it would be a lot safer without the "floating" script in the header. Then it would not seem like such a copy.

I'd add to this consideration the color scheme. The layout is too close for comfort, as Jeremy points out, but a different main and secondary color will help to distinguish your site.

[pearlescence]

It would be an international passing off action - very tricky. And if both sites are based on the os commerce platform (La jolla clearly is, though there is no acknowledgement and there should be - tisk to the webmaster) Both sides may simply be using a standard template, in which case Bluenile hasn't got much of a case because lots of others may well have used.
The blue nile one doesn't look like much of anything special and would there really be confusion - Blue nile is mostly about diamonds
American law may be different - infringement of what?

[CLICLASP]

Does american legislation allow to put pictures of Mrs Obama n McCaine ?

[jshepherd]

Blue Nile's site is definitely is not a template. Blue Nile is the Amazon of the online jewelry biz. They are more than 10 times the size of our company. They are a public company and the world's largest online seller of diamonds. In 2007, their revenue was nearly $320 million with only 195 employees. They are part of W3.org and very involved in everything virtual.

I don't know what they have trademarked, but things such as color schemes can certainly fall into that category.

We come down pretty hard when something has been copied from our site. It is a matter of protecting the brand. One has no choice in the online sphere. The least we do is file a DMCA complaint with Google, Yahoo and MSN. There are no courts with DMCA. We just have to show that something copyright or trademarked of ours is portrayed in a similar fashion on another Web site. The site is yanked from the SERPs within days. Once, we had a site pulled because they were using our name in their meta tags.

I'm only pointing this out because it is a big new-site faux pas that can really destroy a company before it even gets started. A successful DMCA complaint (for which there is little recourse) is the end for a new Web site.

[jshepherd]

Originally Posted by CLICLASP

Does american legislation allow to put pictures of Mrs Obama n McCaine ?

Only if they are purchased or owned. I think it may only apply to an e-commerce site or a paper. When we post celebrity pictures on our site they are purchased from Wire Image. Even though we are in the pictures and they are pictures of celebrities with our products, we still have to pay.

I think it is okay to use images from Wikipedia. Those are "commons".

[pearlescence]

most interesting and informative, thanks Jeremy. I do tend to go into theoretical and lawyer mode when this is the practical way to stop an electonic passing off.
What do you make of this site : http://www.pearlessence.co.uk/
they have been going on the net for about a year according to whois. what do you all think - is this an attempt to pass themselves off as with a C (and therefore can spell) Pearlescence?
Some photos can be used anywhere, depends on what the owner of the copyright wants/thinks/has done. some are the equivalent of open source and can be used. Some should not.

[jshepherd]

That is definitely something I would jump on. If another site popped up called pearlpardise.com or pearlparidise.com I would definitely file a DMCA. DMCAs are the easiest way to test the validity of a claim. They are very effective.

http://www.nolo.com/article.cfm/obje...1/228/195/ART/

I once received a notice of Cease and Desist from a company in French Polynesia. Their company name was Paradise Pearls of Tahiti. They had a Web site, one I had never seen before. When I saw the Web site I noticed that they had a lot of design elements similar to ours. They had a trademark and we didn't. They gave me 10 days to remove my site from the Internet. I hired a lawyer.

It turned out that I had been in business longer than the other company. Although they had filed an international trademark, I had a case to get their trademark reversed. I certainly did not want to get into a trademark fight and they lost a lot of their fighting spirit when they realized the case we had. So we decided to mutually exist. But I spent a fortune on lawyer fees.

It is just not worth opening yourself up to something like this. The company in Tahiti was small. What if it had been Blue Nile we were up against?

[la_corsetiere]

Beautiful designs, Suzanne...I just ordered two pieces for myself! Just the beginning of a rather decadent birthday month, I fear... I would suggest you not bother with rhodium plating, but instead perhaps put a little piece of anti-tarnish paper in a small ziploc bag along with the piece, suggesting that it be stored that way to avoid tarnish. Somewhat inelegant, perhaps, but effective. I personally tend to like slightly tarnished silver pieces; I think a bit of patina on your designs would enhance the organic forms, but that's just me. By not plating the designs, you not only save that expense, but leave open that option to other gothlings like me. I would love to see some of your pieces significantly blackened, with the highlights polished, which I think would really set off the white pearls. I, too, like the idea of mixed-metal, with high-karat gold accents. And I love the idea of "edgy" stringray necklaces - I love that texture, and think it would be a nice counterpoint to the elegant smooth refinement of pearls. Can't wait to see more of your designs!

Sheri

[pearlescence]

Suzanne you need a way to get the money!