Printful taking Printify to court over intellectual property infringement

GaryPageau ,
Printed products manufacturer Printful Inc. filed charges in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco on Dec. 3, accusing print on-demand platform Printify Inc. of infringement of intellectual property rights and unfair commercial practices, according to Printful Latvia representatives. According to published reports, Printful Latvia representatives announced  Printful has accused Printify of illegally copying and modifying the Woocommerce integration software code created by Printful. The code allows for easy postage calculations, which give users specific postage costs for their products.

Printful published their first integrated software code in October 2014, and came out with a new, updated Woocommerce code in June 2017, which they believe Printify has copied, publishing the Woocommerce code as their own a few months later, according to Printful Latvia representatives, according to LSM.LV, public broadcasting of Latvia.

“At Printful we operate honestly, following no only applicable laws, but also the highest ethical standards and principles, which is why such conduct that could infringe on our intellectual property rights isn’t and won’t be acceptable,” said Printful General Counsel Baiba Orbidāne.

Meanwhile Printify Founder Jānis Berdigans told the media he only found out about the U.S. charges from the Latvian media. He isn’t currently prepared to comment any further until their U.S. lawyers have seen the charges.

“Apparently Draugiem Group isn’t pleased with the competition and our lower prices, so they’re trying to obstruct our operations using the legal system,” he said in an article. “It’s unfortunate that Latvians choose to fight competition in this way. In our opinion, competition is a good thing, and we can even say that all PR is good, so for that we thank them.”

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Gary Pageau is principal of InfoCircle LLC, continuing his marketing communications career. InfoCircle LLC is a marketing and communications consulting firm, specializing in business-to-business markets. For nearly 25 years, he was with PMA International, serving most recently as Publisher, Content Development and Strategic Initiatives. His primary responsibilities included overseeing the Association’s editorial department, marketing research unit, education and corporate relations department.