There are some really good tips throughout the article, but this one attacked me lol:
While it’s tempting to want to publicly call out copycats, Stahle urges caution, and she tells her clients to call her before posting anything. Calling a company out, she says, “should be done with caution because it can put you in a worse position from a legal standpoint.”
The number of artists/artisans/craftspeople who go gung ho onto the internet without considering design theft risks is huge. Fortunately, many of them have nothing worth stealing or have stolen (or been inspired by) someone else’s designs.
High end designers who have supplied galleries and boutiques and been on the craft show circuit have been very careful to avoid risking their latest and most innovated designs on internet marketplaces and mass market sites.
I know quite a few designers who use Etsy as a place to park their old tired designs as a reminder to their past buyers in real world venues that they still exist and can be contacted. Their latest designs are not shown on public sites.
MakerPlace is viewed by some of these artists as a way to promote sales by Michaels for supplies to copy the designs of the Makerplace sellers. They believe it is true and it does not matter whether it is or not - they avoid it like the plague. Motivation is different for Handmade by Amazon it is also a pariah.
The story of the victim in the article is tragic since the boutiques who had bought her designs will not trust other crafters in the future.
Some years ago, Pottery Barn put up on their site a Chinese made piece ripping off a Ravelry participant. The Ravelry community came to the designers rescue and the negative publicity caused Pottery Barn to drop the product and others from the Chinese supplier from their site.