Lidl please stop threatening freedom of expression

Finnish artist Kasper Strömman has been recently asked by Lidl to take some of his shirts off the sale from his design outlet, under the threat to be taken to court.

Lidl justification for their action is that “Using the Lidl logo, even when customized, is not okay when it is used to sell a product and potentially generate financial gain. Protecting a company's intangible assets, such as its trademark, is important in the operations of all companies”.

Kasper Strömman withdrew the shirts from his online outlet because a single person can hardly sustain a legal battle against a big corporation, even though he knows well that, as a graphic artist, he has the right to make a parody and to use the very same colours of Lidl logo, especially when they are basic colours that cannot be protected.

As consumers, we want to cumminicate to Lidl that:

1. Their silly attempt to protect their intangible assets turned out to be a boomerang, which is hitting Lidl image in the eye of all people that care about the right of parody. By selling t-shirts with that parody, Kasper Strömann was basically advertising Lidl's brand for free. How can an ironic campaign to have bagles back in Finnish Lidl's shops be seen as a threat to Lidl's image and trademarks? How can't you understand that you will just make people angry by limiting freedom of expression in this pointless way?

2. The same way you can threat a single person with an army of lawyers, we would like to remind you about the power that an army of Finnish consummers has to freely decide not to visit your shops till you reverse your decision to limit Kasper Stömman freedom of expression.

Matteo Cherchi    Contact the author of the petition