US Protection Sought for Guatemalan Mayan Weavers Designs

US Protection Sought for Guatemalan Mayan Weavers Designs. The Indigenous Maya Weavers of Guatemala have made claim that the clothes on their backs are sacred texts of their way of life in the courts of Guatemala.

Mayan Weavers Designs

The defense of Indigenous Mayan Weaving Designs emerged in May 2016. The defense process was  taken to the constitutional courts of Guatemala and has grown to represent weavers in eight departments in the country, representing Maya Kaqchikels, Kiches, Mams, Tz’utujiles, Pocomchís, and Sapatecos.

The Intellectual Property laws of Guatemala do not protect the rights of the Mayan Weavers Designs. This has left traditional Mayan Weavers Designs open to theft by transnational companies looking to exploit and appropriate Mayan identity.

The protesting Mayan Weavers initiated a legal process at Guatemala’s Constitutional Court to demand that Guatemala’s Congress amend the national laws that govern national industry and industrial property rights especially “in the case of textiles and Indigenous clothing to protect the Mayan Weavers Designs.”

Guatemala Handmade Sustainable Textiles

What concerns the Mayan Weavers is the use of their weaving’s designs used by large companies, e-commerce websites, and global fashion designers claiming to support Ethical Fashion.

The Guatemalan Weavers are seeking compensation and protection for the use of their designs commercially where in large companies, e-commerce websites, and global fashion designers use the terms Mayan Weaving, Mayan Textiles, Guatemalan Textiles and Guatemalan Weavers as examples in the Marketing Text or Copy of products that claim direct association with Guatemalan Mayan Weavers Designs.

Artisans of Guatemala

The second aspect of the Mayan Weavers claims or concerns are the direct copying of the Mayan Weavers Designs without compensation. Websites claiming Mayan Weavers Designs using Copy and Photography to market products that have no association with the Guatemalan Weavers.

US Protection Sought for Guatemalan Mayan Weavers Designs

Guatemalan Textiles Buy Direct from our Weavers

Ethical Fashion Guatemala represents the Interests of various Guatemalan Artisans which includes the needs for providing protect for Mayan Weavers Designs outside of Guatemala. Why outside of Guatemala? The large companies, e-commerce websites, and global fashion designers using the terms Mayan Weaving, Mayan Textiles, Guatemalan Textiles and Guatemalan Weavers reside outside of the reach of the Laws of Guatemala with these groups mostly based in the United States.

The strategy of Ethical Fashion Guatemala is in filing protection for the Mayan Weavers Designs, TM, SM, Copyright and other forms of protection through the United States Patent and Trademark Offices.

A second strategy of Ethical Fashion Guatemala is working with website sales portals such as ETSY. Etsy is a peer-to-peer e-commerce website focused on handmade or vintage items and supplies, as well as unique factory-manufactured items. Etsy takes intellectual property rights very seriously. We comply with intellectual property laws and industry best practices in order to maintain the integrity of our creative marketplace.

Google and DMCA offer enforcement for the protection of Guatemalan Mayan Weavers Designs

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As required by the DMCA, we have a policy to terminate users and/or sites that we consider to be repeat infringers. Although we won’t share the specifics of our repeat infringer policy (we don’t want anyone to game the system, after all), we believe that it strikes the right balance of protecting the rights of copyright owners as well as protecting legitimate users from wrongful termination. Please note that notices that are successfully countered, rejected on fair use grounds, or deemed to be fraudulent are not counted against a user or site.