we could start a web blog of users hwo got burned from other designers posign as companies on 99 I am sure athat any comapny tha thad work done for a con artist wold be a little more agressive in solving the problem...just another notch of prepaid contest only!!!!! wish I could vote 1000 times on this matter..because it's the single most important issue here on 99

....I still be that if you took your logo and their to small claims court...you might have a chance. The problem with that, according to my friend, is that if the judge agree with you...it is then 'your' responsibility' to get the money from the client. Something they seem unwilling to do (if it came to that point).

Bummer. I have written a letter of protest to 99Design, but I don't think that anything (other than 99Design getting a black eye) will come out of it.

Oh well...

Wow. I am stunned, but not shocked. :(

The contest holder then says that they have their own in-house design team and their team has hand-lettered and drawn out the present logo, so that there is no mark, monogram, typeface, or other design that fully replicates what they have done, or vice-versa.

Hi,all

Tthe response 99designs got from the Contest Holder is that he don't want to remove the logo from his site and says that its just a co-incidence that our design matches someone else designs.
, however it sounds like they think they are in the right and are
unlikely to remove it.

They have banned the contest holder, it's really unfortunate when things like this happen.

thanx Eastcoastcreative

thanx Eatcoastcreative

5 minuties is all it took to find this guy, he's a freelance deisgner an dor is workign for a company or both..anyways
check this out

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/4/B1A/483

Owner, Josh Garcia Design
Greater Los Angeles Area
http://www.joshgarciadesign.com/

good luck in taking care of this issue

"Logo redesign for our Alex Davis Estates", was this the name of the contest before? I think it was changed, hmm...

(sorry for the typos)

One thing to keep in mind...

(1) These contest are 'risky' for the designer - as they (we) spend a lot of time and we need to be able to 'trust' that someone will win the contest.

(2) The contest holder's are asking us to help with their Logo... The first thing that their customers will see and associate with their business. They can't afford to start a contest and a week later end up with 20 'good tries' but not logo that they feel confident putting on a letter head or business card. I think that the contest holder should be able to, if need be' extend the contest a bit (a way or so) in case they don't see the 'results' they are looking for at the end of the contest.

We need to be 'fair' on BOTH sides and that is easier said than done. That being said...when a contest is finished, no award is granted but the CH places a new logo on their website that looks a lot like a logo designed during the contest.......that is something all together different and gives everyone a sour taste in their (our) mouths.

Wow, this is getting heated. I would be vary careful talking about 'black lists', etc on the internet. Everything you write 'on line' lives forever 'on line' (expecially in the world of Google's "we save everything" DataMining)and could come back to bite you at a later date. I understand esparsha's frustration, as we seem to be holding the 'short stick', but 'black list' websites would most like have little gain and would only start to make us look petty. We need to, however, keep on 99Design for help. Without them....this is just academic dialog. I agree with Vabeach20 that this is a good lesson in the 'real world', but at the same time...that does not mean we can't fight it as well!

I really don't want to give 99Design and/or the CH a black eye, but if this site is going to work there needs to be an amount of 'trust' and 'fair play'. If people start coming here not to honor their contests, but to use it as an inexpensive "think tank" then we all have problems and this site will have a very short 'shelf life'. I realize that people play off each other in these contests and some of the designs start looking a lot alike (maybe more then they should at times), but that is not the problem here. This is a case were it seems the CH might have been fishing for ideas. Do CH holders sign (digitally or otherwise) an 'ethics' page (that would hold up in court) when they start the contest? This might be something that would be good to look into down the road. Or maybe not 'forcing' them to sign an ethics page, but if they do give them an special 'emblem' saying that they signed it and can be trusted.

With that being said.... I have learned over time that things are not always as they 'seem' and we need to make sure that there was not a middle man involved before we start pointing fingers at the Contest Holder. What we do know is that the logo they are now using looks a LOT like a logo submitted on this site, - #231 - (a site with no contest winners..) and that surely smalls fishy to me.

My comment (that I made earlier)was geared more towards contacting the people at 99Design for help. I think that 99Design needs to be the party who contacts the CH in our behalf....less the CH start accusing any of us of 'harassing' them. I am still waiting to see what happens, BUT I 'think' that 99Design have now heard our frustrations and we need to wait and see what (if) they do anything about it. This is serious and the reputation of 99Design rests on what THEY (not us) do next to rectify the situation. There are a lot of issues on the 99Design blog, but this one really should be issue "#1"

esparsha what would making a blacklist site exactly prove? Who would even care what these companies did, as we live in a society where most people care only about themselves and not, in this case, care about others ideas being stolen. First it's best to pursue Mr. Davis there and inform him about whats going on, and if no response, take legal action. Show him who the real boss is.

Now, the same thing is repeating over here in 99designs. This high class beverly hills focused ADE is a thief, or may the middle man is a real ass.
99 designs should brainstorm go through the opinions from designer. May be they should develop another site where we can blacklist the company who steals our designs, and make them sorry for what they did. May be ethieves.com will do great.or simply suggest the name, either 99designs should do this, or we designers should work on together and develop this site, and list those who ever steals our designs.
ECKspo.com is write, may be we "all" should write to the owners of the ADE.
JaanHub, i think u should keep writing them, every day till they feel bad..
99design, if this site needs to go on long on...some new ideas should be developed by u guys...

If it's true that the CH just wanted to fish for free ideas, to then sell as his/her own, clearly it can't be a very clever person, to think he/she could get away with it. It'd seem likely that someone out of a couple hundred contestants would take a little glimpse on the ADE website at some point or another.
Also, seems several contestants have copied whoever came up with the vertically stacked "ADE" letters logo, that's currently used on the ADE website. Can't believe how some can be so transparent in their attempts to plagiarize. If you're going to steal, at least don't offend the victim further by being so obvious about it. Remember, your victim participates in the same contest that you're using his/her logo in! Never mind, perhaps it wasn't conscious by some who used the idea, although the resemblance would seem more than a coincidence.

yup (dido)