National Movement Guatemalan Maya Weavers

National Movement Guatemalan Maya Weavers. Guatemala Weavers and Weaving Co-Operatives have been seeking support of the Guatemala Government to protect the designs of the Mayan Weavers Textiles.

The National Movement of Maya Weavers has organized Weavers from various parts of Guatemala in an attempt to seek a change in Guatemala laws to have their designs protected. 30 Weaving Co-Operatives from 18 linguistic communities in Guatemala are supporting the movement which is led by the Women’s Association for Development of Sacatepequez, known in its Spanish acronym as AFEDES.

The issues reach not only globally but even in Guatemalan as clothing designer Saul come under fire for their use of Mayan designs of Guatemalan Maya Weavers from Santiago Atitlan and Sololá in their clothing lines.

Guatemalan Maya Weavers

The problem Guatemalan Maya Weavers face is that numerous fashion designers world wide have taken the fabric designs of Guatemala Weavers and either copied them outright or sell the products on-line without consent of the creators.

The Guatemalan Maya Weavers have proposed bills seeks to reform 5 legal articles on the Law on Copyright and Related Rights, the Law on Industrial Property, the Law on Protection and Development of Crafts and the Criminal Code.

Guatemalan Maya Weavers are missing the point of how to protect their designs and how to collect compensation for the use of designs by others without their permission. Laws already exist to protect the Weavers designs.  Guatemala has 4 international copyright agreements, and is a member country of The Berne Convention for Copyright.

The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, usually known as the Berne Convention, is an international agreement governing copyright, which was first accepted in Berne, Switzerland, in 1886.

Any work originating in Guatemala, where the author of the work is a national of Guatemala or the work was first published in Guatemala, is given the same copyright protection in each of the other Berne Convention member countries.

Some countries copyright protection is automatic as soon as the work is saved in material form, registering for copyright in Guatemala is extremely important in order for the copyright holder to have the all important proof of copyright.

Proof of copyright is absolutely necessary in an age where the publication, distribution and theft of work is so easy. It is unfortunate that we live in an age where copyright infringement is so common, and Guatemalan Textiles producers/creators/owners of work lose substantial money by others using the intellectual property for their own gain. Copyright owners also lose a substantial amount of time and money trying to defend copyright disputes and prove the original work is theirs.

Ethical Fashion Guatemala was formed and copyrights filed by Ethical Fashion in  Guatemala under the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works all around the world.  Ethical Fashion is a copyright authority providing official copyright registration.

Ethical Fashion Guatemala exist to protect our members work and to protect our members in events such as copyright disputes and copyright infringement. Members of the Ethical Fashion Guatemala are provided with official certified copyrights for their work.

Guatemalan Maya Weavers

San Juan Lake Atitlan Francisco Vásquez Mendoza, is the only son of Antonio Vásquez Yojcóm and Juana Mendoza Cholotío, and is a powerful painter is his own-right. Francisco builds upon his traditional Tz’utujil culture, infusing his paintings with a vibrant and colorful approach. People from around the world visiting San Juan purchase and prize his work which has been distributed throughout the globe.

However today in the Family Show in San Juan La Laguna Photography of the art is no longer allowed due to theft of the paintings of Francisco.

Guatemalan Maya Weavers

La Cueva Leather in San Juan La Laguna is devoted to keeping the art of leather crafting alive.  Owner, Nicolas Pop has been pushing the boundaries of imagination custom designing, from the highest quality leather, a wide variety of handbags, tote bags, shoes, belts, backpacks, wallets, knife holders, and many other items for the past 15 years. La Cueva has a reputation for quality, value, and attention to detail, garnering attention from around the world. Nicolas Pop also has no protection for his creative leather works.

Guatemalan Maya Weavers

The issue of design theft of creative works from Guatemala goes much farther then weavers. Guatemala Artists, Painters, Leather and Ceramics artists are also in need of Copyright protection for their works. While the Weavers are garnering all the attention the Artisans of Guatemala also need protection which is what Ethical Fashion Guatemala Copyright protection provides for FREE.