Bruce Feiler - Where God Was Born, Abraham, Walking The Bible

The Quilt Wars
Thursday, June 21, 2007

Images of her handmade quilts adorn postage stamps, Visa gift cards and $5,000 rugs, but Annie Mae Young and some of the other quilters who made Gee's Bend famous say they missed out on what has turned into a giant payday.

Claiming she has been cheated by several major corporations and a trio of scheming Atlanta businessmen who relied on an oral contract that "violates the statute of frauds," Young filed suit Friday in federal court in Selma, seeking a larger slice of the lucrative pie her art has generated since being shown in the nation's most prestigious art museums.

That pie includes stationary, coffee-table books, lampshades and a line of bedsheets and duvet covers made by the Kathy Ireland Worldwide Corp., named after the former swimsuit model.

A lawyer representing Tinwood Ventures, one of the companies named in the lawsuit, said the quilters have been fairly compensated and have received national exposure thanks to his clients' efforts.

According to the suit, Tinwood claims to own the intellectual property rights to the quilts produced in Gee's Bend prior to 1984, and, in turn, the company has leased those rights to manufacturers.

While several of the companies involved in marketing products based on Gee's Bend quilts state in promotional literature that the quilters "receive a royalty" for every item sold, Young's lawsuit states she has never received "one penny from these enterprises."

Posted by B Feiler at 7:01 AM
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