SEATTLE – One of two glass artists accused in a copyright-infringement lawsuit of selling Dale Chihuly knockoffs has asked a federal judge for permission to continue making the colorful pieces.
Chihuly filed a lawsuit last October against former Chihuly Inc. employee Bryan Rubino, glass artist and broker Robert Kaindl, and four galleries that sold Rubino’s work. Chihuly has alleged the two would select his designs and Rubino would make them for Kaindl to sell.
Rubino, a former Chihuly glassblower who now runs a glass studio in Shelton, filed a counterclaim Thursday in U.S. District Court asking that he be allowed to continue making lopsided glass forms in any color he chooses.
He alleges Chihuly is trying to claim “a monopoly on any and all glass art that is curved, nested or uses certain kinds of colors. (Chihuly) cannot use copyright registrations to protect an idea or process that is so elementary that it would preclude any other glass artist from working or creating any glass art at all.”
The counterclaim included images from a dozen glass artists and studios around the country whose work is both asymmetrical and colorful like Chihuly’s.
Chihuly spokeswoman Janet Makela would not comment on Rubino’s lawsuit.
Earlier this month, Kaindl filed his own counterclaim that Chihuly is not involved in conceiving, creating, designing or even signing a “substantial number” of artworks that bear the Chihuly name.
Rubino claims he created or co-authored some of the works that Chihuly is suing to protect, and that some of his work was done “without any creative input whatsoever from (Chihuly Inc.) or Dale Chihuly.”
Rubino collaborated with Chihuly from 1988 to 2004, both as an employee and an independent contractor.
A fax he says he received from Chihuly includes sticklike drawings and instructions: “Here’s a little sketch but make whatever you want. We’ll get everything up to Tacoma when you’re done and I’ll try to come down while you’re blowing. Till then, Chihuly.”
The fax was dated Dec. 10, 2003, while Rubino was an independent contractor for Chihuly.
Rubino is asking to be declared co-creator of some of Chihuly’s more famous pieces, and awarded profits associated with those works.
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