Recovering alcoholic Mark Becker, 48, says he stood atop an ancient Mayan temple in 2000, asking the great spirit of the universe for direction.
When he returned home to Denver, he found his strength in “The Serenity Prayer,” at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. He decided to engrave the prayer on a piece of jewelry:
“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. Courage to change the things I can. And wisdom to know the difference.”
He then developed a boutique line of bracelets and pendants, using timeless quotations from the Bible, Buddha, Albert Einstein, Gandhi, Laotzu and van Gogh – to name a few.
He had them manufactured in Mexico and now markets them to retailers from his home in Washington Park.
In May 2002 – just as Becker got his life and his new business together – he received a “cease and desist” letter from a San Francisco jeweler, Jeanine Payer, alleging trade dress infringement, or copying the look and feel of her products.
Payer inscribes famous quotes on her jewelry too, including “Just realize where you come from: This is the essence of Wisdom,” by Laotzu.
On her website, she boasts of actresses Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon and rocker Mick Jagger as customers. Some of her pieces have been worn in films.
The idea of engraving words on jewelry dates back thousands of years. But Payer claimed the style Becker used could be too easily confused with her own.
I won’t be the judge of this claim. Compare for yourself at www.bbbecker.com and www.jeaninepayer.com.
I just think it’s interesting when someone who makes a living copying the words of others is suddenly up in arms about trade dress infringement.
Payer filed a lawsuit against Becker in New York, leaving Becker with two choices: get out of the jewelry business or fight an expensive, out-of-state legal battle, risking a large judgment.
“The cost of defending yourself in Manhattan is extreme,” said Becker, who also works as a tai chi teacher. “Most people can’t afford it.”
Instead of folding his hand, Becker turned to a group called the Colorado Lawyers for the Arts, a nonprofit that provides free legal services to its members. The group usually helps artists with more mundane legal problems, such as setting up nonprofit entities, executive director Jim Conder said.
“We try to stay away from artists suing artists, but his issue was so compelling we took the case,” Conder said.
The group put Denver intellectual property attorney Christopher Beall of Faegre & Benson on the case. Beall, in turn, got help from law firm Latham & Watkins in New York.
The legal team spent a year and a half and more than 2,000 hours defending the case for free. Had they been paid, it would have cost more than $500,000, Beall said. For his part, Becker agreed to pay expenses, which he said total about $90,000. Last week, a jury ruled in Becker’s favor.
“This case was an important victory for artistic freedom and free competition,” said Beall. “In vindicating Mark, the jury sent a powerful message that artists should be free to compete with each other … even if their styles of expression are somewhat similar.”
Payer’s attorney, Roger Myers of DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary in San Francisco, on the other hand, said the jury’s verdict compromises artistic expression by not protecting the property rights of the artist.
His client has invested a considerable sum in this case, and Myers said she is considering an appeal.
For now, Becker counts himself lucky that he hooked up with CoLA and the legal team it brought to his case.
“If they hadn’t taken this case, we would have gone out of business a long time ago,” he said. “That’s the way the system is.”
Becker says he’s now working on jewelry using a quote adapted from the Epistle of James in the New Testament:
“Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure your faith life is forced into the open and shows its true colors.”
Al Lewis’ column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Respond to Al at denverpostbloghouse.com/lewis, 303-820-1967, or alewis@denverpost.com.
