Danish Designs Centre bullying Danish design talents

Posted on | September 20, 2011 | No Comments

Bureau Detours, a talented Danish architecture-, design- and building studio, recently launched the humorous Dennis Design Center initiative; a temporary design center owned by “Dennis”, a fictitious art-enthusiast character (supposedly from Rotterdam in the Netherlands), who set out to change public space in and around Prags Boulevard as part of the recent Metropolis festival.
The name of the design center paid respectful and (typically Danish) humorous wordplay-homage to the Danish Design Centre institute, that serves as a point of entry to the Danish design industry.

Only the Danish Design Centre appearently couldn’t see the fun, because only a few days after Dennis Design Center had entertained the crowds at Prags Boulevard with the creativity of “Dennis” throughout the festival, Bureau Detours received a seize-and-desist letter from Danish Design Centre’s lawyers, claiming trademark infringement and demanding that the exhibition be cancelled from further display and the affiliated website be taken offline right away.

The case has now reached Danish media (Politiken, in Danish) and serves as another perfect example of a national institution that has failed to understand the true nature of creativity and natural branding; namely that such sampling serves to promote their trademark rather than infringe it.

As of writing, the site is still up and the exhibition recently visited the Netherlands.

Comments