Was recently brought to my attention that Wargames Foundry launched an intellectual property dispute against Templar Wargames through Kickstarter as the Spartacus miniatures being funded were based on Wargames Foundry dollies.
Description of infringing material: Infringement of Foundry Miniatures Ltd. Copyright - I am writing to you because you have published a Kickstarter called “28mm Army of Spartacus”. All the miniatures pictured in your Spartacus Kickstarter are an infringement of Foundry Miniatures Ltd. copyright. The Spartacus range in your Kickstarter has been created using Foundry Miniatures Ltd. models, dolls and component parts that breach our copyright. Many of them are complete existing Foundry figures with the heads swapped for heads from other existing Foundry models. You have even pirated the exact same separate weapons, shields and horses that we supply with these models.
The models in your Spartacus Kickstarter have all been created using models and component parts that were sculpted by Mark Copplestone for Guernsey Foundry Ltd. and/or Foundry Miniatures Ltd. All of the models, including greens, dolls and component parts that were sculpted by Mark Copplestone for Guernsey Foundry Ltd. and Foundry Miniatures Ltd. are the exclusive copyright of Foundry Miniatures Ltd. All of the models sculpted by Mark Copplestone for Guernsey Foundry Ltd. and Foundry Miniatures Ltd. continue to be manufactured and sold by Foundry Miniatures Ltd. under our trading names of Wargames Foundry, Warmonger Miniatures, Casting Room Miniatures and Foundry Collectables. The only reason for greens, dolls or component parts to ever leave the Foundry premises is for use in official Foundry Miniatures Ltd. models by sculptors who work for Foundry from home. All the greens, dolls and component parts remain the property of Foundry Miniatures Ltd. They are not the property of the sculptor. The Spartacus range that appears in your Kickstarter was originally pirated by Douggie Cameron who claims he had been sold the Foundry Miniatures master castings, greens, dolls and component parts by an employee of Foundry Miniatures Ltd. Foundry Miniatures Ltd. has never sold, loaned or gifted any master castings, greens, dolls or component parts and has never sold, loaned or gifted any models with the rights to produce them. The Foundry Miniatures Ltd. master castings, greens, dolls and component parts used to create the Spartacus range advertised in your Kickstarter have been created using stolen goods that are Copyright Foundry Miniatures Ltd.
The exact same Spartacus range was briefly pirated by Aventine Miniatures in 2012. Aventine Miniatures immediately removed the entire range from sale when we ordered samples from their website using our Foundry Miniatures Ltd. business address. We did not take legal action against Aventine Miniatures because they immediately removed this range from sale on their website and because we believed that they were an innocent third party who had been tricked into producing the range by Douggie Cameron. We require you to immediately delete the Spartacus Kickstarter, cease any other sales or advertising of these models and make a public apology on the internet forums that you have used to advertise your Kickstarter acknowledging that the models are Copyright Foundry Miniatures Ltd. We require you to send us all of the greens, master castings, dolls and component parts that were used to produce the Spartacus range. They are stolen goods. They are the property of Foundry Miniatures Ltd. We require you to either provide evidence of the destruction of any master moulds and production moulds of the Spartacus range or send them to us to destroy. The intended use of these moulds can only be to breach our copyright. We will hold you liable, in part or in full, for any further breach of our copyright by any third party using the materials currently in your possession. If this breach of our copyright is not resolved by 4pm BST on Friday 18th August 2017 we will instruct solicitors to take action against you. We will hold you liable for all our legal costs in relation to this matter. We reserve all our rights in this matter. Your faithfully Diane Ansell Managing Director Foundry Miniatures Ltd. Link Official Kickstarter Announcement
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