Inter IKEA Systems BV called me!

IH TQ

This is too freaking amazing!

And it could not have happened without your support. Every email, twit, comment and message that you have sent in support of IKEAhackers has led to this moment for us – that it is possible for fans to cause a ginormous corporation to rethink its actions. THANK YOU! I am very grateful, moved and humbled by your outstanding support over the last few days. I love you guys to bits.

*Insert: Jules does happy dance!!*

So, yesterday evening I received an email from Anders of Inter IKEA Systems BV asking me to get in touch. I did and he told me he was having lunch! (So good to talk to a human who eats!) Later he called back to express that IKEA would like to dialogue with me to find a new way forward. What does that mean? I don’t know yet. But I am hopeful, though my guard is still up. From our conversation, I do not have to make any changes to IKEAhackers (including the ads) till we settle on an agreement.

In a statement they issued (published by Jennifer on Yahoo! Homes) they said “We want to clarify that we deeply regret the situation at hand with IKEAhackers. It has of course never been our ambition to stop their webpage. On the contrary, we very much appreciate the interest in our products and the fact that there are people around the world that love our products as much as we do. We are now evaluating the situation, with the intention to try to find a solution that is good for all involved.”

Will IKEAhackers still move to a new domain? 
It depends on the details of the new “solution” and whether the terms are acceptable. If they are not, then the move may still happen.

What will happen next?
I will wait for them to propose a new agreement. Stay posted and I will update you when I have news. You may want to sign up for my mailing list so you won’t miss any developments on this situation.

On the whole, I am so excited I could pee in my FRAKTA pants.

Happy and grateful,

Jules black

Link to my post on the trademark dispute.

Similar Posts

56 Comments

  1. Huzzah! The People have spoken! I really hope IKEA have listened. Still have my fingers crossed, Jules 🙂

  2. *http://www.zeit.de/digital/internet/2014-06/ikea-zwingt-ikeahackers-zum-umzug
    Stay tuned Jules……

    *http://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/handel-dienstleister/abmahnung-gegen-bloggerin-ikea-veraergert-seine-fans/10057130.html

    *http://www.stern.de/wirtschaft/news/streit-um-bastelseite-ikeahackers-wie-ikea-seine-groessten-fans-vergrault-2117910.html

    *http://www.focus.de/digital/internet/ikeahackers-net-ikea-mahnt-moebel-hacker-ab_id_3927696.html

  3. Wish you the best of luck cause at my house we LOVE your site and all the ideas in it 🙂 Hugs from Portugal

  4. PERFECT! Now, Jules, PLEASE don’t let them bully you!

    Ask your attorney to contact a Swedish attorney before signing, so you know that they are not forum-shopping! That’s a legal term, where you use the (copyright) legislation of e.g. East Prussia, because the current legislation in your country of residence would not give you the desired outcome. A good rule of thumb is to examine the legislation of the home country of the aggressor, in this case Sweden.

    I’ll happily pay for that consultation.

    Remember: Their copyright goes no further than sale of original furniture and associated products. They can at most ask you not to advertise meatballs, furniture and screwdrivers. Perhaps fabrics, but not stickers and custom cabinet fronts.

      1. Not really, though. IKEA, Inter IKEA Systems, IKANO, Ingka Holding B.V., The INGKA Foundation and The Stichting IKEA Foundation are based in a variety of countries, while the owners and managing directors live in another set of countries. The Kamprad family itself is spread across Europe.

        However, this is missing the point. My point was to emphasize the necessity of consulting an attorney in a Northern European continental law jurisdiction. The common law countries are the wild west for libel and copyright lawsuits, earning London the nickname libel capital of the world, while causing notable deaths in the USA.

        The person responsible for this case within Inter IKEA Systems BV is Niclas Bengtson; a Swede. The CEO’s are Swedish, and the brand markets itself on Swedish trades, values, colours and images.

        Thus Swedish law is a good place to start, when handling a matter in public.

    1. Remember Ikea is settled in the Netherlands and became a “Dutch” organization. Someone explained this in the other topic.

    2. The sad thing is, there is a very strong case for this being “fair use” and not in any way infringing on anything.

      Of course, you’d need an expensive lawyer to prove that to a giant corporation with a fleet of their own.

      1. Yeah, but that’s why it’s key to determine the forum. Fair use is only applicable in common law countries, thus neither Sweden or the Netherlands. The point I’m trying to make is, that the American concept of fair use is much more restrictive than freedom of expression.

        A rule of thumb in continental law is that anything goes, when talking about a product / corporation. However you are not allowed to copy the name, logo, design or other immaterial properties to sell another product. I.e. your product. So you can have an ad-funded blog called coca-cola-sucks.ie, but not one called coca-cola-is-not-as-good-as-pepsi.es.

        But more to the major point of your comment: How cool would it be, if IKEA had an actual fleet?! Can you imagine a flat-pack admiral?

  5. Congratulations and thank you for all that you do! I’ve been an Ikea Hackers fan for over a year now. Glad to see that Ikea has realized the extent of the service you provide.

  6. Jules, this is great news. I hope you are able to work out something with Ikea. While you are having the discussion with them, be sure to ask how this situation could have arisen 🙂

  7. I have no other means of supporting you than deactivating AdBlock on your website which I very rarely do anywhere else.

    Keep up the good work.

  8. Well, they made a mistake, didn’t they? Glad they are talking to you and trying to de-embarrass themselves. Now keep good notes and know what you want. You are as valid as they. Remember that. We all appreciate you.
    🙂

  9. Let’s hope it works out; I actually blogged about your site giving IKEA free advertising and how asinine they were being. I am glad they got told off and that all this stress goes away. And I have a small hack of my own for you, soon as I know where your site will securely be!

  10. This whole situation reeks of an attorney or firm trying to make a name for themselves, rather than being the brain-child of a savvy business person. I can think of no circumstances where the IKEA brand would be undermined or tarnished by the content or advertising on this site. I dare say that any competent executive would be silently applauding your efforts, as this site is very effective at driving interest in, and sales of, their products. Your site translates directly to revenue for IKEA, without costing them a penny. At least until they get the bill from their lawyers over this nonsense…

  11. How much of this was just a publicity stunt by Ikea… get depicted as a heartless monster and then turn around and do this and be considered as a the little guy’s friend. BTW – they got a whole lot of free publicity by doing this. I call BS on Ikea mgmt.

  12. I hope the outcome will be in your favor. You have an amazing blog and I know for sure it inspired many people to purchase Ikea products. I know it has inspired me. It made me realize how easy it is to make Ikea products work in every house. I believe this blog is the best promotion tool Ikea could even dream of and to shut it down is just plain stupid.
    Everyone participating is doing a great job.

    Keep the inspiration going!!!

    Thanks!

  13. Glad they are having a change of heart. And glad that I could help in being a small part of the collective voiced displeasure.

    While protecting brand-identity is important, it doesn’t trump customer experience with the brand. As corporations are learning with all sorts of social issues, making your customers mad at your actions affects the bottom line, even though those customers didn’t directly experience the corporate bad behavior. What we are doing is democratic capitalism: voting with our dollars.

    Watch this space….

  14. Hi, I discovered this site ages ago and then to be honest, forgot it. Thanks to IKEA’s ridiculous posturing I am now reminded and have bookmarked it. I have also tweeted and added my tuppence worth to IKEA. Keep up the good work. It’s about time that bullying behaviour by bog corporations is knocked out too.

  15. I’ve been a massive fan of Ikea hacker for so long! I understand that Ikea have to protect their brand but there were better ways to go about it. I’m glad that they’ve contacted you to see if they can find a way that works for you, ikea and all of us Ikea hacker fans. I’ve pinned so many of the projects featured here for the future.

  16. I have never visited your site before but I read about this incident with IKEA in the news today and wanted to send you congratulations! All the best! 🙂

  17. Don’t let IKEA bully you! You go girl! If you need help ask for it, I am sure tonnes of fans would support you.

  18. I suspect the whole problem only happened because of the requirement to defend a trademark or lose it. I hope you’re both able to reach an accommodation.

  19. I’m sick of this BS. IKEA cannot be that stupid, so I bet this is just and has always been their tactical trajectory of progress in this case. Now they get applauded for coming to reason again? Seriously, sheeple, do not be that naive!

  20. I didn’t knew about this site until this stupid decision to close it down…but today it’s shared to all of my friends and their friends, so I really hope that will remain up and somebody from IKEA managment to be fired for this nonsense.This site it’s really cool and a great advertising for them!

  21. Hooray! Seeing as this whole site is basically. Huge free advertisement for ikea, I was really surprised that they wanted to stop it in the first place. I can’t be the only one who has seen some of these hacks and wanted to instantly pop out and purchase all the things to make my own.

  22. Good news , BUT be careful . Big companies have objectives: if they cannot get to it the A way, they’ll choose the B way and then the C way. The public message is just pure PR to cool things down on the networks scene, don’t forget what they wanted at the beginning , they keep this in mind too for sure- good luck !

  23. Ikea Delft is where they are. It just happens to be just 5 minutes by bike. So if you need help just let me know.

  24. Bravo! Good luck. If they don’t come up with a solution that lets you keep your website and make some money for your efforts, I’ll have to stop shopping there.

  25. Hey Jules,

    Lots of Ikea co-workers vocied concers at our interal IKEA webiste over company behaviour. Hopefully, they have already understood the mistake and everything will be the same as it was before the letter 🙂
    A lot of people working at Ikea visit this page:)

  26. Hey Jules,

    I am a big fan of your site too, having hacked a few furniture pieces myself. Hope everything works out and they can be friends with this site. I think they have realized their mistake and the fans will all rally, stand behind and support you.

    Your cuz,
    Jerry

  27. Hi Jules: that is good progress. The first time I read that quote was in a response to something I put up on Ikea Sverige’s Facebook: ‘Hej, I find what is happening with Ikea Hackers bizarre. I know, I’ve read your copy-and-paste statement, the original one in Swedish. You say the site is being commercial because of the banner ads on her site, although they simply pay for her hosting. Think about yourselves: you’re supposedly controlled by a foundation, a non-profit charity, yet you, too, are commercial. So you can do this and she can’t?’ I am sure they realize their hypocrisy in their dealings with you and the massive negative PR this has generated. Thank goodness for the internet community stepping in—but none of this would have happened if you didn’t create a fantastic website to begin with.

  28. I did not like Ikea before this incident. But now i am certainly not going to spend money anymore on such a heartless company.

  29. Hey! I come by here every so often, and just noticed your side bar with all this legal junk 🙁 I hope things are going better!!! I can’t say how many times a hack posted on your site led to me making a purchase at Ikea that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. From the way I see it, even if you made a ridiculous amount of money off this site, Ikea would still be in a win-win situation with you. Unfortunate that companies get too big and lose their “soul” and common sense 😛 Take care!

  30. It would be a very bad move of them to shut you down.
    I just made a giant IKEA shopping list because of this site, so if anything it’s bringing them more customers 🙂 (except for maybe the people who will just modify their existing furniture instead of buying new ones).

  31. IKEA uses a sales technique called “bulla bulla” in which a bunch of items are purposefully jumbled in bins, to create the impression of volume, and therefore, inexpensiveness.

Leave a Reply to Ns Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *