Mary Cummins Investigative Reporter Los Angeles, California

Saturday, July 15, 2023

SHEIN 2023 Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Explained by Mary Cummins Investigative Reporter

shein, copyright, lawsuit, racketeering, rico, mary cummins, krista perry, larissa martinez, jay baron, los angeles, california, zoetop, roadget, complaint, copyright infringement,design, rico act

UPDATE: 07/13/2023 Summons was filed. SHEIN has 21 days to reply from the day they are served. I don't see proof of service filed yet. They will probably reply with "deny all" to all claims and only admit the name of their company.

UPDATE: There's a false rumor going around that this lawsuit will shut down SHEIN. :-D No, it will not. It's not a major lawsuit. It looks like a weak copyright, trademark lawsuit. SHEIN was sued a few times previously and settled the cases quickly. These are small time copyright, trademark issues.

If you look at other large fashion companies including competitors to SHEIN, they have many, many, many copyright and trademark lawsuits. It's part of the business. I have a feeling this rumor was probably started by the competitors of SHEIN. If I get the time, I will post the copyright lawsuits against the competitors of SHEIN. All of the things the competitors have accused SHEIN of, the competitors are actually guilty of. I listed the items in the previous article linked below.

UPDATE: The attorney who filed the lawsuit is the one who copyrighted the items contested in the lawsuit. This means there was no copyright when SHEIN allegedly offered the item for sale. One item had no copyright as it was rejected from the copyright office outright years ago. Here is but one for Krista Perry.

https://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?v1=2&ti=1,2&Search%5FArg=perry%20krista&Search%5FCode=NALL&CNT=25&PID=VOZQuFG-fajYuiyLDG0vgc_6JAW8F&SEQ=20230715200427&SID=14

I'm searching here. https://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&PAGE=First

ORIGINAL: I just pulled up the actual SHEIN copyright infringement lawsuit. This is an intentionally messy shake down lawsuit. Anyone who reads it can clearly see someone went searching for plaintiffs with very old grievances just so they could file a lawsuit and make all these outrageous claims. Most of these claims are political and in line with the recent smear campaign by competitors by paid lobbyist SHUT DOWN SHEIN.

There is something in lawsuits called "litigation privilege." That means a party, attorney can make any defamatory statement they like in a lawsuit and never be sued for defamation. Plaintiffs clearly did this in this lawsuit throwing around totally unproven allegations. They used all the exact same defamatory statements by SHUT DOWN SHEIN paid lobbyist campaign in the lawsuit. I personally feel SHUT DOWN SHEIN is probably involved someway in this lawsuit. Here is an article I wrote about the SHUT DOWN SHEIN paid lobbyist campaign. https://marycumminsinvestigativereporter.blogspot.com/2023/05/us-retailers-fear-attack-successful.html

The most damning evidence that this is a shakedown lawsuit is that plaintiffs who are very, very small time "designers" filed for copyrights years after the alleged copyright infringement and immediately prior to filing the lawsuit. Lawsuit also states SHEIN offered the designers $500 to license their designs. It looks like some of the plaintiffs may have taken that offer because the suit states the offers did not come with legal releases. I'll post more on this later.

Small time copyright issues such as these are generally settled by contacting the website which the plaintiffs did. These plaintiffs don't pay $50,000 for a copyright attorney in the hopes of getting maybe $500 in licensing fees. You don't get copyright lawyers on contingency. Someone paid for this lawyer for them or the lawyer expects huge legal fees.

The main introduction for the lawsuit reads like the SHUT DOWN SHEIN website. It's almost verbatim, cut and paste, word for word. It even includes citations to some outrageous articles. The accusations are reckless and wild to the point that I won't repeat them. I don't think I should post the actual lawsuit for the same reasons. It contains a lot of Chinese hate speech. Changed my mind. Here it is. I won't add the text here in this blog article. Read the lawsuit and come to your own conclusions. There are suing for four claims of copyright infringement, one claim of trademark infringement and violation of RICO Act.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1k_mLby_Qt7QDuTuQFqlz95IX91tN8AM-/view?usp=sharing

The designs in question are very minor designs that were maybe on just a few very minor super cheap products. We're not talking Nike, Louis Vuitton, Gucci or Chanel type designs. These designs look like the work of an eight year old doodling. The one pattern actually looks like many other flower patterns I've seen for years. It looks like a copyright violation of someone else's pattern.

The designs are posted below under the fair use of copyright act. They are being discussed in an educational manner. This article is public commentary about these images which were captured as part of a paper legal filing which has litigation privilege. Part of the lawsuit is included in the images.

I believe SHEIN's argument that vendors load their designs, products to the SHEIN website to sell. I just visited their site and it's obvious there are many designers and individual stores. http://www.shein.com They're now more similar to Aliexpress than being one big regular store.

Krista Perry 68. “Make It Fun” is an original artwork first created by Perry in 2016, with its date of first publication September 1, 2018. Perry applied to the copyright office and received registration for the Artwork on May 1, 2023, with registration number VA 2-344-429."

This item is all over the internet sold by many different people such as Amazon, RedBubble, Etsy...Why not sue them too? At least SHEIN took it down. The others didn't. SHEIN can now argue that Plaintiffs were and still are being damaged by the other people still selling it. Very amateur design which would have been much easier to be inspired by but greatly improved upon. SHUT DOWN SHEIN campaign began April 2023. Copyrights filed April, May 2023? Hmm.

Here is the throw rug, blanket, towel thing. https://valleycruisepress.com/products/70s-floral-throw-blanket If you Google image search the throw, you will see it all over the internet. Why aren't they suing Etsy, Aliexpress,Urban Outfitters, Amazon and the hundreds of other sites selling it? I hope you can see this link.

image search

Jay Baron: This "design" is so amateurish why would SHEIN even want it? They could do much better just scribbling on a name tag. This design is being sold all over the internet, everywhere except SHEIN. https://www.google.com/search?q=hello+i%27m+trying+my+best&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjPsffCv5GAAxUCJkQIHZnsDx4Q0pQJegQIDBAB&biw=1366&bih=625&dpr=1

The lawsuit states Jay Baron filed for copyright but was rejected. So there's no copyright? This case is looking very weak.

He filed for trademark for "trying my best" words only on textured background or fabric. He did get that trademark. It doesn't appear he's sued people to protect it before this year. It's everywhere. There is probably statute of limitations for trademark infringement.
https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4802:d0p5km.2.1

Larissa Blintz Martinez

“Orange Daisies” is an original design created by Blintz, with its date of first publication July 28, 2019. Blintz applied to the copyright office and received registration for the Artwork on April 27, 2023, with registration number VA 2-343-963." Notice copyright date coincides with SHUT DOWN SHEIN paid lobbyist campaign.

Here is the copyright data for this item.

https://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?v1=1&ti=1,1&Search%5FArg=orange%20daisies&Search%5FCode=TALL&CNT=25&PID=bmSrGLU3gwTyFUJeYjWR5CiKElgiM&SEQ=20230715201238&SID=9

Below is one of Larissa Blintz's Instagram posts about may be this print. She says she acquired it to use in her designs. You can't copyright a jumper. You can copyright a unique one of a kind fabric design. Is this it? It's hard to tell. Larissa said she "acquired" this print which means she didn't make it. This is the outfit above. https://shopmiracleeye.com/products/shelley-shorterall-in-marigold?variant=16724852113451 If it's not the same print, it's close. Looks like Larissa used someone else's print pattern design as an inspiration. Most of her designs are from the '70's. I was around in that era which is why it all looks so familiar. Just read her bio. Her mother is a clothing designer who is very familiar with fabric stores. She buys fabrics and doesn't design them. You can't copyright a basic short jumpsuit. Fashion can't be copyrighted but prints can. The prints are different.

I just compared SHEIN's alleged design pattern with the one allegedly owned by Larissa. They are different prints. Look at them both side by side and you'll see the differences. Come to your own conclusion. They are removed from SHEIN's website but still sold all over the internet in the exact same jumpsuit style. Some are even using Larissa's same exact photos. Perhaps this lawsuit was filed too hastily. It's now looking even more political. I hope SHEIN's reply includes this information and the fact that is a political smear job written for the media to harm the company.

As you look at the above images SHEIN could have easily recreated the basic ideas and not infringed on any copyright. They could hire someone to make new images, prints inspired by the copyrighted ones if they wanted. I'm sure the quality of the images would have been much better than the originals. They have many hired artists and designers here in the US, around the world and in China.

As for the print it's very, very similar to so many other flower prints. Looks like Blintz was inspired by other floral prints. In fact if you go to her Instagram account it looks like she was inspired by '70's wallpaper. https://www.instagram.com/larissablintz/?hl=en

I just created a similar pattern for free using AI. I asked it to create a repeating pattern of many small orange flowers on a black background.It created a similar pattern. There are also lots of copyright free backgrounds with similar patterns. No need to use a copyrighted design today.

There is a mechanism to report alleged copyright infringement. SHEIN does load thousands of new items per day. I again suggest they first run clear photos of the designs of any new items through Google image search to try to find the original source and see if it's copyrighted before they offer it for sale.

The items in the lawsuit were maybe not copyrighted when they were on the SHEIN website. That could be an issue. It looks like SHEIN removed them when alerted to the copyright claim. What then will be the damages? I'm not a copyright attorney. It looks like the attorney wants a big payday and publicity. I really think SHUT DOWN SHEIN is behind this. The speed in which the news spread is the work of a paid publicist like Chapin Fay of Actum who is behind SHUT DOWN SHEIN. I see no press release by the attorney. The timing for copyright notices and lawsuit coincide perfectly with the SHUT DOWN SHEIN campaign, i.e. SHUT DOWN SHEIN April 2023, copyrights April, May 2023, lawsuit filing July 2023. The lawsuit reads like it's part of the campaign.

All of the images, products are being sold by many, many other places online which I easily found with a Google image search. Looks like they've been there for years. I think statute of limitations for copyright is two years. The statute of limitations may have passed for their designs based on the lawsuit, copyright dates and other online items. While I was in Pacer I searched SHEIN. There have been some cases against SHEIN which were settled quickly. Maybe that will happen in this case.

I don't know who is doing media, press for SHEIN but they need better advice. Instead of taking the influencers to visit the factories they should have stayed quiet. That came off poorly as damage control. Silence would have been better. They should also disable Google image search of their website.

Below is the current docket. I'll try to check the docket for the reply.

shein 在加利福尼亚州洛杉矶被起诉侵犯版权

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA (Western Division - Los Angeles)
CIVIL DOCKET FOR CASE #: 2:23-cv-05551-MCS-JPR

Krista Perry et al v. Shein Distribution Corporation et al
Assigned to: Judge Mark C. Scarsi
Referred to: Magistrate Judge Jean P. Rosenbluth
Cause: 18:1961 Racketeering (RICO) Act
Date Filed: 07/11/2023
Jury Demand: Plaintiff
Nature of Suit: 470 Racketeer/Corrupt Organization
Jurisdiction: Federal Question

Plaintiff

Krista Perry
an individual represented by David A. Erikson
Erikson Law Group
200 North Larchmont Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90004
323-465-3100
Fax: 323-465-3177
Email: david@daviderikson.com

Antoinette S. Waller
Erikson Law Group
200 North Larchmont Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90004
323-465-3100
Fax: 323-465-3177
Email: antoinette@daviderikson.com

Jeffrey S Gluck
Gluck Law Firm
16950 Via De Santa Fe
Rancho Santa Fe, CA 92067
310-776-7413
Email: jeff@gluckip.com

Plaintiff
Larissa Martinez
an individual represented by David A. Erikson

Plaintiff
Jay Baron
an individual represented by David A. Erikson

Defendant
Shein Distribution Corporation
a Delaware corporation
Defendant
Roadget Business Pte. Ltd
Defendant
Zoetop Business Company, Limited
Defendant
DOES
1-10, inclusive

Date Filed # Docket Text

07/11/2023 1 COMPLAINT Receipt No: ACACDC-35648032 - Fee: $402, filed by plaintiffs Krista Perry, Jay Baron, Larissa Martinez. (Attorney David A. Erikson added to party Jay Baron(pty:pla), Attorney David A. Erikson added to party Larissa Martinez(pty:pla), Attorney David A. Erikson added to party Krista Perry(pty:pla))(Erikson, David) (Entered: 07/11/2023)

07/11/2023 2 CIVIL COVER SHEET filed by Plaintiffs Jay Baron, Larissa Martinez, Krista Perry. (Erikson, David) (Entered: 07/11/2023)

07/11/2023 3 NOTICE of Interested Parties filed by Plaintiffs All Plaintiffs, (Erikson, David) (Entered: 07/11/2023)

07/11/2023 4 REPORT ON THE FILING OF AN ACTION regarding a copyright (Initial Notification) filed by Jay Baron, Larissa Martinez, Krista Perry. (Erikson, David) (Entered: 07/11/2023)

07/11/2023 5 REPORT ON THE FILING OF AN ACTION Regarding a Patent or a Trademark (Initial Notification) filed by Jay Baron, Larissa Martinez, Krista Perry. (Erikson, David) (Entered: 07/11/2023)

07/11/2023 6 Request for Clerk to Issue Summons on Complaint (Attorney Civil Case Opening), 1 filed by plaintiffs Jay Baron, Larissa Martinez, Krista Perry. (Erikson, David) (Entered: 07/11/2023)

07/13/2023 7 NOTICE OF ASSIGNMENT to District Judge Mark C. Scarsi and Magistrate Judge Jean P. Rosenbluth. (jtil) (Entered: 07/13/2023)

07/13/2023 8 NOTICE TO PARTIES OF COURT-DIRECTED ADR PROGRAM filed. (jtil) (Entered: 07/13/2023)

07/13/2023 9 Notice to Counsel Re Consent to Proceed Before a United States Magistrate Judge. (jtil) (Entered: 07/13/2023)

07/13/2023 10 21 DAY Summons Issued re Complaint (Attorney Civil Case Opening), 1 as to Defendants Roadget Business Pte. Ltd, Shein Distribution Corporation and Zoetop Business Company, Limited. (jtil) (Entered: 07/13/2023)

07/13/2023 11 INITIAL STANDING ORDER FOR CIVIL CASES ASSIGNED TO JUDGE MARK C. SCARSI upon filing of the complaint by Judge Mark C. Scarsi. (smo) (Entered: 07/13/2023)

10. Plaintiff Krista Perry is an individual residing in Worcester, Massachusetts. Ms. Perry is a well-regarded and successful illustrator and designer living in Massachusetts. In 2015, she received an honors BFA in illustration from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Since then, Perry has created artwork for clients like Madewell, Nickelodeon, and Jameson Whiskey.

11. Plaintiff Larissa Martinez (aka Larissa Blintz) is an individual residing in Los Angeles County, California. Ms. Blintz is the CEO, creator, and owner of “Miracle Eye” a female-owned family-run small business, designing and fabricating ethically handmade-to-order clothing out of their workshop and store in Los Angeles.

12. Plaintiff Jay Baron is an individual residing in Los Angeles County, California. He is a well-regarded independent artist working between Burbank, California and Austin, Texas. He founded Retrograde Supply Co. when he was 18 and has amassed a large social media following, with his work featured in television, film, and 100+ independent retailers in the United States.

Mary Cummins of Cummins Real Estate is a certified residential licensed appraiser in Los Angeles, California. Mary Cummins is licensed by the California Bureau of Real Estate appraisers and has over 35 years of experience.

Mary Cummins, Mary K. Cummins, Mary Katherine Cummins, Mary, Cummins, #marycummins #animaladvocates #losangeles #california #wildlife #wildliferehabilitation #wildliferehabilitator #realestate #realestateappraiser #realestateappraisal #lawsuit real estate, appraiser, appraisal, instructor, teacher, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Pasadena, Brentwood, Bel Air, California, licensed, permitted, certified, single family, condo, condominium, pud, hud, fannie mae, freddie mac, fha, uspap, certified, residential, certified resident, apartment building, multi-family, commercial, industrial, expert witness, civil, criminal, orea, dre, brea insurance, bonded, experienced, bilingual, spanish, english, form, 1004, 2055, 1073, land, raw, acreage, vacant, insurance, cost, income approach, market analysis, comparative, theory, appraisal theory, cost approach, sales, matched pairs, plot, plat, map, diagram, photo, photographs, photography, rear, front, street, subject, comparable, sold, listed, active, pending, expired, cancelled, listing, mls, multiple listing service, claw, themls, historical appraisal, facebook, linkedin DISCLAIMER: https://mary--cummins.blogspot.com/p/disclaimer-privacy-policy-for-blogs-by.html

Thursday, May 4, 2023

US Retailers Attack Successful SHEIN with Paid Smear Campaign, by Mary Cummins

SHEIN, shein.com, shuttown shein, chapin fay, actum, china, retail, clothing, jewelry, accessories, chris xy, yangtian xy, nanjing, temu, wish, aliexpress, amazon, ebay, fashion nova, forever21, Zara, H&M, Asos, cheap, prices, mary cummins, los angeles, california 希音

SHEIN is a very successful Chinese e-commerce company selling clothing, jewelry, accessories and home decor items online direct to International and American consumers. Recently they and their customers have been attacked by a paid professional organization called "Shut down Shein." The organization is funded by US competitors of SHEIN and run by registered lobbyist Chapin Fay of Actum. Actum is a US paid public relations "lobbyist" business. The campaign Twitter account only has 28 followers! :-D

SHEIN 希音 was founded by Chris Xu aka Yangtian Xu in 2008 in Nanjing, China. The company is privately owned with headquarters in Singapore and warehouses, distribution centers all around the world and US. SHEIN through its vendors sells items at almost wholesale Chinese prices direct to the consumer. They are like wholesale Amazon, eBay, Temu, Wish, AliExpress for trendy clothing, jewelry and accessories. For this reason their almost identical items are much, much cheaper than comparative items sold by their US competitors.

What would cost $9 to $69 at H&M, Zara, ASOS, FashionNova, Forever 21...costs $1 to $9 at SHEIN. SHEIN also has an insane variety of products adding thousands of new items per day. SHEIN does not operate expensive International and US retail brick and mortar stores except for some temporary popup stores. This reduces costs which is how they are able to sell items at lower price points.

Instead of changing their business model to better compete with SHEIN the US competitors have embarked on a smear campaign of attacks, lies and pleas to the media, public and US politicians to shut down SHEIN by any means. "Shut down Shein" and their supporters attack anyone who supports SHEIN online including commenters and shoppers on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. They call them "anti-American," "racists," supporters of "slavery" and even "communists." They're attacking teenage girls whose only sin was to comment "cute!" on a tshirt posted by SHEIN. They're also spreading anti-Chinese racism and hate during Asian heritage month.

The lies don't stop there. They state that SHEIN makes "throw away" clothes which are destroying the environment. SHEIN is making similar clothes to the ones their US competitors are selling. They're made in the same place in the same way with the same materials for the same wholesale price sometimes even in the same factory. Nike, Adidas, Levis, L.L. Bean, Calvin Klein, Abercrombie & Fitch and the more expensive brands like Armani, Burberry, Prada, D&G, Marc Jacobs are also made in China. Even luxury jewelry brands are made in China such as Maria Tash and many more.

They even state that SHEIN steals copyrighted designs. Most clothing, jewelry and accessories are made with inspiration from other items. The large US companies do the exact same thing which is why they're complaining because it's competition. There have been copyright claims on some designs in the past. When you consider the sheer number of vendors and items, one could see how that could happen. SHEIN has a copyright policy. They will remove any copyrighted item posted by any of their vendors. Perhaps large companies such as SHEIN can institute an auto Google image search of all new items to prevent this possibility especially since they're adding thousands of new products daily.

There was a claim that some products used cotton sourced from forced Uyghur labor in Xinjiang, China violating the Federal Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA). Cotton from Xinjiang is widely used in the global garment industry. As of last fall, 16 percent of cotton clothes on store shelves in the US contained this cotton. It's a difficult issue because the cotton ends up being mixed with other cotton, sold as thread, yarn and manufactured into fabric or products in places other than China. Adidas, Hugo Boss, Puma all were found to have this cotton in their products even though they had no links with Xinjiang. Xinjiang cotton is shipped to India, Vietnam, Cambodia and other countries who then make products. H&M, Nike, L.L. Bean, Patagonia, Victoria Secrets, Reformtion, L Brand and many more US companies used this cotton. There's no way to know if products have this cotton without DNA testing it. SHEIN states they no longer use this cotton. So do the US companies. If you were to DNA them all, they all may have some of this cotton. SHEIN has a supply chain statement. They also have statements about supporting entrepreneurs, the community and environment. More info about the company here.

Some people are buying items in SHEIN just so they can leave false negative reviews about other issues. Here's one for a plastic hair clip. It's not cotton. "SHEIN USES UYGHURS. SHEIN USES UYGHURS. SHEIN USES UYGHURS." It's in English and Arabic and recent.

In the past these same large US companies ran smaller US stores out of business by selling cheaper items made in China. These same companies used similar business practices as SHEIN which indirectly killed the smaller US companies. Now that SHEIN has taken it a step further by selling items at almost wholesale prices the US companies are screaming foul. There is nothing stopping the US competitors from dropping their prices to match SHEIN's except profits.

SHEIN is successful because SHEIN has similar items for a lot less money than US retailers. They are able to do this by making money off volume and having a cost effective supply chain, efficient logistics, modern technology and data-driven insights. Their website is easy to navigate and they have detailed dimensions, materials, sizes and customer reviews listed for the products which their competitors don't have. Their customer service and shipping is much better and faster and they're all the way in China. Items generally arrive in nine days or less from order to delivery in the US which is faster than US companies. They also offers shopper incentives for placing orders, receiving orders and leaving reviews besides offering lots of coupons and special pricing.

There are companies which sell similar items in many different stores for similar prices in China, i.e. Temu, Wish, Alibaba and AliExpress. SHEIN is more successful than those companies in the US because customer services is ten times better, products are superior and items ship faster and more reliably. SHEIN ships all items combined from their own warehouse. The other companies ship items individually though more recently they're doing some group shipping through central shipping centers.

The other Chinese businesses operate in a similar manner as SHEIN and have existed for years. The US competitors don't care about them because they aren't as successful. Amazon, eBay, Walmart and other websites selling items from China legally operate in the same manner under the tariff free $800 de minimus threshold for imports from China. Again the US companies don't care as much because they aren't as successful when it comes to trendy, fashionable clothing, jewelry and accessories. They're only calling out SHEIN. They know they can't shut down Amazon, eBay or Walmart which operate under the same de minimis threshold. If they can't shut down Amazon, eBay or Walmart, they won't be able to shut down SHEIN for those same reasons.

"Shut down Shein" claims that SHEIN is not paying tariffs and other taxes on the items sold. Amazon, eBay, Walmart, AliExpress...all operate legally in the same manner and have for years. The US companies could also operate in the same way if they wanted to do so. Instead they'd rather use mainstream media, social media and the US government to try to harm their competition.

Here are some things "Shut down Shein" states about SHEIN in their website that "proves" they should be shut down. It looks like a list of SHEIN's successes to me. If the US companies had accomplished these things, they'd be patting themselves on the back, giving their CEOs bonuses and bragging about it to the media.

"SHEIN is the No.1 downloaded app in both Android and iOS App Store’s Shopping category in the U.S. with 229 million downloads, beating out Amazon by almost 34 million downloads."

"SHEIN has an “unusual” marketing strategy that heavily targets teenaged and twenty-something American “influencers.” SHEIN targets all age groups. All the other companies use the same marketing strategy. If an 8-12 year old goes to Claires to buy cheap jewelry, they will be tracked by their profile, favorites, purchases, which items they linger on while scrolling... Shein only allows people 16 or older to use their website.

"SHEIN’s website ranks #1 in the world for web traffic in the fashion and apparel category, according to SimilarWeb, putting them ahead of household names Nike, Zara, Macys, Lululemon and Adidas."

"A recent survey of American upper income teens by investment bank Piper Sandler ranked SHEIN as 2nd after Amazon for most popular shopping website."

"The average duration of a site visit is estimated at 8 mins 36 seconds, higher than every major US fashion brand."

Chapin Fay who is behind "Shut down Shein" has used lies to try to garner immigrant votes for Republicans. One campaign was called "Stop the insanity" which Fay promoted on social media. It was a fear mongering campaign just like "shut down Shein." Thankfully political candidate Lee Zeldin lost the campaign. He also campaigned against AOC and again lost. Fay is hoping that current Chinese hate, racism, distrust and anti-TikTok will help his smear campaign.

Some of Fay's similar lines of rhetoric against SHEIN are “TIKTOK IS THE NEEDLE, SHEIN IS THE DRUG,” “TikTok and Shein, controlled by the [Chinese Communist Party], are trying to capture an entire generation of American youth. And in a way, they already have,” "Shein: The biggest national security threat you never heard of," Shein's “dangerous and reprehensible behavior.” All these statements are straight from their links below. Fay is actively spreading lies and anti-Chinese hate and racism. Fay is contacting all politicians who hate China asking for help. Truly a despicable campaign especially during Asian Pacific heritage month here in the US.

The PR website states their specialties are "communications, government relations, storytelling, narrative development, digital and social media, advocacy mobilization, special groups, political consulting, public opinion." If telling the world how much more successful their competitor is, is their idea of "narrative development," their client should get their money back. So far these petty attacks using an anonymous name appear as jealousy of their successful competition. The personal attacks on teenage girl SHEIN shoppers on Instagram are very low. I was even attacked by them.

This campaign is already a bust. Their Twitter account only has 28 followers! :-D It only follows US politicians. Their main campaign is to try to derail their IPO via a letter from US politicians. They want SHEIN to certify that they don't use forced labor. I believe they already did that in their website. This looks like illegal interference with business and commerce to me.

In response to the campaign, a spokesperson for Shein said: “Shein proudly provides customers with on-demand and affordable fashion, beauty and lifestyle products, lawfully and with full respect for the communities where we operate. We categorically deny these false and baseless claims, and will not hesitate to take swift action to protect the rights of our company.”

I sure hope SHEIN hires some lobbyists, PR people, media to help them deal with this nasty attack from "Shut down Shein." The people and companies behind this should be exposed as sleazy, liars, defamers, cheats and hypocrites. I highly doubt there is a human rights organization behind this campaign. They would have mentioned their name if they were supporting this cause.

Below is a quick example of the price differences. This earring is a gold plated hidden helix dangle. Maria Tash sells it for $490. It's made in China like the rest of Tash's expensive jewelry. Maria Tash says the design is "patented." It's not. Tash patented the back of a stud earring which no one else uses because it catches your hair. You can't copyright, patent a fashion design like this. People made and sold the earring before Tash but she lies about all of her jewelry. The exact same earring sells for $4 on SHEIN. The SHEIN version has a high quality Zircon instead of a diamond but it's still gold plate over sterling silver. The same earring on AliExpress is $3. The same earring on Etsy which was bought on AliExpress is $25-$100. Many other places sell it for $100-$200. There's a HUGE markup in jewelry and clothes. US companies are pissed that SHEIN has shown the world their huge profit margin. Below is SHEIN's earring. They show materials and dimensions which helps the consumer. Other places don't.

*I don't work for SHEIN. I just read some articles about "Shut down Shein" and saw people viciously attacking SHEIN's customers online and decided to investigate to try to understand why. The post I saw was about Frida Khalo merchandise. SHEIN licensed the name and likeness for a product line legally with the owner of the Frida Khalo trademark which is the Khalo family. I'm related to Diego Rivera which is why I saw the article. Shut down Shein attacked Shein for this even though Shein did everything legally and properly. I posted that the licensing deal was legal and was attacked so badly I had to remove my posts to get rid of their attacks against me. I have more research which I may add to this story at a later date.

@SHEIN_Official @SHEINUS_ @SHEIN_news

References

media@shutdownshein.com @shutdownshein

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/lawmakers-call-sec-asses-shein-221757019.html

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/coalition-launches-to-shut-down-shein-protect-americans-from-foreign-influence-301779464.html

https://www.semafor.com/article/04/14/2023/following-tiktok-play-chinas-shein-enters-dcs-crosshairs

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/the-complicated-path-to-avoiding-cotton-from-xinjiang/48134540

https://sheingroup.com/

Saturday, April 8, 2023

Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve in Los Angeles, California by Mary Cummins

mary cummins, los angeles, california, antelope valley california poppy reserve, california poppy, poppy reserve, lancaster, best photos, pics, 15101 lancaster, free

The Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve is located at 15101 Lancaster Road, Lancaster, California GPS Latitude/Longitude: 34.72556546104782, -118.39665971500784 . This link takes you to the map . They have a poppy cam so you can see current conditions. Poppies generally bloom mid-February through May but it depends on rain, sun, wind and temperature. When it's cold, windy, raining the poppies close up. If it's very cold, they die. If it's very windy, raining, the petals fall off then you have to wait for new ones to appear which is pretty quickly. If clouds come in, temps will drop, wind will pick up. Try to get there when there are no clouds before 3:00 pm. If they last to May when it's warmer, you can get there later if there are no clouds. Here is the trail map

http://parks.ca.gov/pages/627/files/AVCPR%20Map%203-23%20Color%20QR%20update%20PDF.pdf

I took the photos below mainly outside of the reserve down the street in a field right off the road GPS 34.716140207421, -118.35129831176793 . I did not step on any flowers. There are little path ways. It's at a small intersection. They sell lemonade, honey, tshirt on the street there. Photos of satellite image of the site are down below. It's free to park on the side of the road here. You can see the poppy fields on the satellite images which I posted below.

mary cummins, los angeles, california, antelope valley california poppy reserve, california poppy, poppy reserve, lancaster, best photos, pics, 15101 lancaster, free

Wednesday, April 5, 2023

Upside Foods bio meat, EPIC manufacturing plant and Uma Valeti. Is this a real business? Probably not

Uma Valeti, Upside Foods, Memphis Meats, cultivated cell meat, Califorornia, Emeryville, epic, lab, biomeat, biotech meat, scandal, scam, con, venture capital, Nicholas Genovese, fda, cultured meat, lab grown meat, cultivated meat,

UPDATE: 05/28/2023 Lab grown meat industry and not yet a possible commercial venture. It currently takes too many resources and energy to produce the meat. It will not be a commercial product until they find a way to make it more easily, cheaply and with less of an environmental footprint. In the meantime we should just be eating plants or already commercially available plant made "meats." Impossible Foods makes the best burgers, grounds and they have great chicken nuggets.

https://futurism.com/new-study-lab-grown-meat-worse-environment

04/28/23 Upside is now making ground chicken with plant base and a few lab meat cells thrown in. That sounds like Impossible chicken nuggets with a dash, a pinch of cells. If we're talking .0001% cells, that makes the product commercially viable now. As it's just plant based chicken nuggets, what is the point? The point of lab meat is an entire piece of meat indistinguishable for real meat, a chicken breast, a cut of steak. We already have great ground chicken substitutes. Who would pay $20,000 for ground lab meat? There's no market for that.

https://www.fooddive.com/news/upside-foods-cultivated-ground-chicken-pdgf-independent-cells/648266/

04/23/23 I haven't read this because of the pay wall. https://www.wsj.com/articles/inside-the-struggle-to-make-lab-grown-meat-12cf46ab

ORIGINAL: Dr Uma Valeti has been churning out press releases about his company Upside Foods for years now. The company will allegedly produce, already produces bio meat. Dr. Uma Valeti is a cardiologist in California. Upside Foods used to be Memphis Meats. Bio meat is meat cultured from animal cells that doesn't involve raising and killing animals.

Bio meat is a hot hot hot industry because it could cut down on greenhouse gases from animal farming, reduce water consumption and reduce the cruel treatment of farm animals. Many have tried to cultivate animal cells but so far the process is too costly. Upside claims to have found a way to produce bio meat affordably. For this reason many want to invest in the company so they can make millions of dollars. The company has raised over $500,000,000 based on the promise of being able to currently manufacture bio meat at a reasonable cost.

November 2022 the FDA sent Upside Foods a letter stating they reviewed their data and their bio chicken would be safe for consumption. https://www.virgin.com/about-virgin/virgin-group/news/upside-foods-receives-green-light-for-cultivated-meat-from-fda This of course is very different than having an actual product which can be commercially produced. This is not an approval of the final or any product.

The new manufacturing facility is called EPIC. It's located at 6201 SHELLMOUND ST, EMERYVILLE, CA 94608-2119. It's currently zoned for retail shopping center anchor store, storage or shipping facility. Approved uses are retail, food/beverage, office, gym, entertainment, life science i.e. lab space. It's not approved for manufacturing. Previously there was a sports gym and a market bar at this location. It's located near apartments and retail properties. There is no application for a zoning or planning variance to manufacture bio meat. May 2021 they stated the "facility will produce, package and ship cultured meat at a larger scale than any other company in the industry." The company claimed in late 2021 they currently can and are(?) producing 50,000 lbs of bio meat per year and are testing production runs.

December 2022 they applied for a "pilot production plant" permit which expires November 2023. This was after they stated they already built the manufacturing plant and were manufacturing bio meat. I'll call tomorrow and update the article. I checked with Alameda County, California Building and Safety using their address https://permit.acgov.org/ You would need a lot of permits and variances from many different agencies to be able to operate a meat for human consumption operation at this site.

I managed to find this from the city of Emeryville. It's for "research and development" only and not production or manufacturing. "Memphis Meats – 6201 Shellmound Street; tenant improvements for research and development. Building permit application for Memphis Meats biotechnology company submitted on July 29, 2020. Issued building permit to install structural mezzanine in Parcel C1 for mechanical equipment for Memphis Meats on September 23, 2020. On November 18, 2020 received building permit application for Memphis Meats tenant improvements." https://www.ci.emeryville.ca.us/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/5105

I also found this from November 2021, "Upside Foods (formerly Memphis Meats) – 6201 Shellmound Street; office, and research and development lab; valuation $30.5 million; building permit received final inspection on November 10 and certificate of occupancy was granted on November 23." "Upside Foods (formerly Memphis Meats) – 6005 Shellmound Street, Suite 175; interior tenant improvements; valuation $5.4 million; building permit application for expedited plan review submitted on November 5." Status was listed as zero completion. This is when they had their building ribbon cutting grand opening. Looks like it was the grand opening of the office.

Initially the cost of Upside's cellular meat was $18,000/lb then $9,000 and now it's allegedly $2,400/lb. Real animal meat sells for $2-$20/lb. Plant based meat sells for about the same. Upside is a long ways off. If you don't want to eat animal meat today, makes more sense to eat plant meat like Impossible or Beyond. Impossible meatballs, burgers taste fantastic and don't have unhealthy animal fat, cholesterol like real meat. 12 oz Impossible ground beef is $5. Gardein has wonderful affordable options as well. I've vegan and eat mainly unprocessed beats, nuts, seeds besides fruits, veggies, rice, grains. I have no investment in any food or other company.

A few of Upside's legal woes.

Many suspect the company is an investment scam. "Will Biotech Meat Become the Next Tech Scandal? Everything about the biotech meat industry is premature. The entire sector is essentially one massive PR campaign disguised as food tech pretending to save the world. When you’re spending more time chasing media than ensuring your company is financially successful, the house of cards will inevitable fall."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michelesimon/2023/01/10/will-biotech-meat-become-the-next-tech-scandal/?sh=b753e142c96c

Another red flag is the company sued one of their founders Nicholas Genovese. Two other key employees resigned after Genovese was fired.

https://www.wired.com/story/upside-foods-blue-sky-trade-secrets-lawsuit/

https://thecounter.org/upside-foods-lab-grown-meat-cultured-uma-valeti-nicholas-genovese-firing/

More red flags is CEO, GMs who have never successfully run a real active business that makes products. Dr. Uma Valeti is just a cardiologist. He's never run any business before yet alone a multi million dollar business. They have no real product in the market even though they claim they made their first bio meat over a decade ago. All they do is churn out PRs and raise funds. Most board members are venture capitalists. This company reminds me of the scam bio fuels companies. They claim to take waste and turn it into bio fuel or as a replacement for plastic like Xyleco which I outed. Just fyi I predicted the failure of investment scams NPCT, UMCC, ASTN, EZR, TMOT, Theranos, Enron... I was sued twice for defamation for my 100% factual statements about the companies ASTN and their stock promoters NPCT. I represented myself pro se and won both cases.

About Upside Foods: "Upside Foods, based in Berkeley, Calif., was founded in 2015 by Uma Valeti, MD, the company’s CEO, and William Clem. Formerly known as Memphis Meats, the company – a pioneer in the lab-grown meat business -- underwent a name change in May 2021. On November 16, the Food and Drug Administration announced that lab-grown chicken developed by Upside Foods is safe for human consumption. The company anticipates being able to bring its products to market once its facilities have been inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture."

"Among Upside Foods’ investors have been Abu Dhabi Growth Fund, Softbank, Tyson Foods, Norwest Venture Partners, and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and Virgin Atlantic founder Richard Branson. The company has raised at least $520 million, the latest of which was a Series C round in April 2022. Its last known valuation was $1.3 billion and has not publicly communicated an intention to IPO."

Other investors Kimbal Musk, Cargill, Khalifa Al Suwaidi of Abu Dhabi Growth Fund,

SEC filings

Form D Exempt Offering of Securities

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1668780/000156761922009601/xslFormDX01/primary_doc.xml

Saturday, March 4, 2023

Jackie Robinson Memorial, Mack Robinson brother, Pasadena, California, by Mary Cummins

Beautiful bronze statues of Jackie Robinson and his brother Matthew Mack Robinson who both grew up in Pasadena, California. They were both amazing athletes and people. Jackie Robinson broke the baseball color line when he started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. Mack was an Olympic athlete who won a medal in track and field.

These ten foot tall sculptures are open to the public 24/7. They're amazing sculptures! So much artistic talent and detail by Ralph Helmick. 95 N Garfield Ave, Pasadena, CA across from City Hall. Mack is on the left and Jackie is on the right. These are some of the most beautiful bronze sculptures I've ever seen.

Huntington Museum, Library and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California by Mary Cummins

mary cummins, investigative reporter, real estate appraiser, animal advocates, los angeles, california, the huntington, museum, library, botanical gardens,

The Huntington is a Museum, Library and Botanical Garden in San Marino, California. It's so huge you should really visit it over a few days. Take advantage of the free museum days and you can see most museums in California. These are just some photos of the gardens taken March before the flowers started blooming.

mary cummins, investigative reporter, real estate appraiser, animal advocates, los angeles, california, the huntington, museum, library, botanical gardens,

Mary Cummins is an Investigative Reporter in Los Angeles, California. Cummins is also a real estate appraiser with Cummins Real Estate.