Danish furniture brand OMHU has launched its own fake copy of its viral Teddy sofa, selling 50 orange units under the misspelled name “Tedy” on Temu, Etsy and dupe.com.
The Copenhagen-based design company says it acted out of frustration with the volume of cheap imitations of its best-selling sofa. DR reports that the 50 sofas were listed as “the iconic dupe” at a lower price than the original.
The Teddy is a mattress-built sofa in a velvet-like cover that converts into a sofa bed. It contributed to a company profit of 39.2 million kroner last year, according to DR. Creative director Christine Marie Smith says the fake listings sold out in under ten minutes.
OMHU holds trademark protection and design rights on the product. Smith says the company receives one to two messages a week from customers who have spotted imitations. Each time a copy is removed, she says, a new one appears.
Imitations are sold on marketplaces including Etsy and Temu at a fraction of the original price, and can also be found through searches on dupe.com. Smith says buyers of copies have complained to OMHU about quality after believing they had bought the original.
Costly to challenge the platforms
Smith says taking legal action against billion-kroner marketplaces is too resource-intensive for a single company. She adds that many other brands are fighting the same battle.
Stina Teilmann-Lock, an associate professor in design and IP management at Copenhagen Business School, says it is difficult for an individual firm to have seller profiles shut down. According to her, that work is often handled by organizations such as Rettighedsalliancen on behalf of companies.
Teilmann-Lock says litigation is expensive and time-consuming, even when companies win. She notes that cases become considerably more complicated when they are brought against foreign actors. Danish companies have tried this route with mixed results, DR reports.
Counterfeit sales cost the European Union billions in lost revenue each year, according to a report from the EU Intellectual Property Office and the OECD. A survey from the Danish Patent and Trademark Office, cited by DR, found that one in three people aged 15 to 24 knowingly buy counterfeit goods, with price the main reason.
For the campaign, OMHU hired people who resemble famous actors and models, including winners of look-alike contests in New York. The brand has also run large outdoor advertisements for the fake sofa in the city. Smith says the aim is to explain why consumers should invest in an original made from good materials under proper working conditions.
DR contacted Temu, Etsy and dupe.com about the criticism that copies of the Danish sofa design can be bought on their marketplaces. None of the three companies responded to the broadcaster’s inquiries.
