[Updated: 11:17AM on 20 June 2014]
Swedish furniture brand IKEA get its online attention few days ago as the corporation attempts to shut down an IKEA fansite IKEAhackers. The corporate’s actions received some backlash from the IKEA fans and now the corporation is looking for a new way to resolve the issue with the founder of IKEAHackers Jules Yap. Jules updated the site and mentioned that IKEA has released a statement (published by Jennifer on Yahoo! Homes) about the issue to express their deepest regret for their hurtful action:
“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.”
After having a conversation with Anders of Inter IKEA Systems BV, Jules stated she can make no changes to the site (including the ads) until they settle on a new agreement. However, the moving of the site may still happen as it depends on the solution or whether the terms are acceptable.
We are crushed. IKEA fans are crushed.
But no one is more devastated than the founder of IKEAHackers Jules Yap (pseudonym) who had to shut down her site as IKEA has filed a trademark claim on the site.
On June 14, the founder took the legal matter to her site and announced that IKEAHackers.net will no longer be in operation. Jules explained in a post that she received a Cease and Desist (C&D) letter from IKEA, demanding the site to transfer the domain name to them as the site has infringed upon intellectual property right. After much negotiation, she was allowed to keep the domain name as long as it’s a non-commercial website. However, Jules will not run the site any longer as she will not be able to make the profit from the featured advertising on the site.
For the past eight years, IKEAHackers was served as a creative community for IKEA lovers all around the world to share their ideas of repurposing their IKEA purchases. The site has inspired a DIY-frenzy among us and helped put a positive light on IKEA items. But this will not be the end of IKEA Hack as Jules announced that she will move the site to a new domain soon. She encourages the fans to sign up for the mailing list so that they can continue to post up the ideas or be inspired once the new site is ready!
Our take? We think it’s a huge wasted opportunity for IKEA because Jules does more than just finding ways to hack IKEA products; she also encourages others to buy IKEA products to hack. Which, in return, will see an increase of sales on top of the already extremely high sales. Sigh!
(Source)
