WakeUpLive.com presents: Feeling Sensitive

“The best part of getting a card from you is always the verse you write. Why don’t you design a line of greeting cards?” That is a question I hear often in the early 70’s from my close friends. Little did I know this is the beginning of a wildly successful greeting card line as well as a path to the United States Supreme Court.

It’s September 1976, I’m a single parent of an eight-year-old son and a freelance interior designer whose work is featured in Chicago newspapers and magazines. I write poetry to mend a broken heart, and although I’ve been writing greeting cards since childhood, I’ve never thought of selling them until now. After doing my research, I see there is a gap in the card industry. I am convinced I can fill it with cards and verses to help many people communicate their feelings. Even though I have no marketing or card industry experience, I’m filled with great ideas and committed to learn as I go.

I create a collection of 32 verses excerpting some from my book and design an original card concept that has a distinctive look and feel. I envision a chrome-plated display rack with my photo and name at the top followed by the title Feeling Sensitive ™ “A lost and found department for those with the feelings in search of the words.”™

Weeks later, I receive a call announcing I had won an Honorable Mention Award in the national design competition for Outstanding Interior of the Year. I’m invited to New York for the ceremonies. Happy as I am about receiving the award, I look at it as an opportunity to promote my cards. Joyfully, I pack up my hand-made samples and head to New York. I’m thrilled to get my first order from the greeting card buyer at Bloomingdale’s store. Next, I line up a sales organization to sell my cards at the upcoming New York Stationery Show – a really important step.

My printed cards go into a busy little neighborhood store. Within six days, I receive a reorder in the mail along with a message that customers are buying them by the handful. Right from the beginning, Feeling Sensitive™ is a big success. I rent space at the Chicago Gift Show to open retail accounts. Feeling Sensitive™ greeting cards are featured on the evening news along with other unique items at the show.

I fly to Boston to work another trade show. On the last afternoon, a sales manager from an east coast company steps into my booth and says, “The president of our firm is interested in distributing your card line nationally. We have a powerful sales force and can do an outstanding job for you. Why not think about it and give him a call?”

Eventually I license this company for a two-year period. Feeling Sensitive™ is a national success and they sell millions of cards while my distributor tells his customers “It’s the finest sensitive verse greeting card line ever released.” Two years pass and our agreement comes up for renewal. For many reasons, I choose not to renew it. They choose to create a deceptively similar card line. Before I know it, Feeling Sensitive™ displays begin to fill up with the rip off line. Many uninformed retailers sell them under my photo, name, and the Feeling Sensitive ™ trademark. Throughout the next eight years, their imitation cards ride the wave of my success while their company goes public, and Forbes magazine lists my former distributor as one of the richest men in America.

The repercussions from being ripped off are horrible. It devastates every area of my life and hurts my family. I’m wedged into a decade of debt, despair and struggle. My son, Sean, and I live through the toughest times as debts rise and legal issues ensue. I sue the company for copyright and trade dress infringement. I have a “David and Goliath” battle, and courageous attorneys who agree to take my case on contingency. We accumulate our evidence, and wait almost eight years to have a trial by jury in Federal Court. When it occurs, an archival witness admits to searching through historic greeting card archives as far back as the 1800’s and not finding a single card line that incorporates all of the design elements of Feeling Sensitive.™

The jury finds the distributor guilty, guilty of infringing on my copyright and trade dress rights, guilty of copying the total concept and feel of my line. We are awarded their reported profits of $4.3 million dollars, and they appeal the verdict. We wait again for nearly two years until the Court of Appeals rules in our favor. They brazenly appeal that decision to the United States Supreme Court. We wait another four and a half months until the highest court refuses to hear their appeal, and as a result, they must pay the award with interest.

By seizing my success and holding on tenaciously, all the way to the United States Supreme Court, I won my 10 year battle. Now, I am proud to say, whenever an artist creates something unique my landmark case will be there to protect them.

*** This article was republished with permission from the best-selling Wake Up...Live the Life You Love book series. To hear more information on this book and the book series, go to http://wakeupteleclass.com/.