Brian Donnelly, aka KAWS, has won a major court victory over a man he accused of counterfeiting, along with others, replicas of the artist’s “Companion” figure and other toys, skateboards casters and works of art.
On May 2, a U.S. District Court awarded KAWS $900,000 in damages and ordered Dylan Joy An Leong Yi Zhi and two associated companies in Singapore named The Penthouse Theory and The Penthouse Collective, to cease produce counterfeits.
The award seeks to punish Leong, who “knowingly intended to sell counterfeit KAWS products,” according to the ruling, and to account for “the effect that counterfeiting is having on the market for KAWS products, including diluting the distinctive character of the products and disruption of the market.”
KAWS attorney Aaron Richard Golub called it a “very important international case,” telling Artnet News that as far as Leong and his companies are concerned, they manufacture 154 variations of KAWS products. Singapore, which operates under a common law system, recognizes and enforces the decisions of US courts, he said. “We are now able to enforce this judgment worldwide.”
Detail of KAWS, Tide (2020). Photo by Ben Davis.
Leong’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Golub said he would next seek judgment against one of the other defendants in the case, Jonathan Anand. Anand’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment, and an attorney for a third defendant, David Kang, declined to answer questions from Artnet News.
KAWS and its legal team had been sending cease and desist letters and takedown notices since 2020. The infringement website described its KAWS products as “hand-reworked reproductions,” available at low prices.
![KAWS, the KAWS album [detail]. (Photo by Ben Davis)](https://news.artnet.com/app/news-upload/2021/03/kaws-album-detail-1024x768.jpg)
KAWS, The KAWS album [detail]. Photo by Ben Davis.
Over the years, KAWS has developed a huge global following for its toys and collectibles. Some of the most popular items include the gray silhouette known as the “Companion” and riffs on famous Sesame Street and The Simpsons characters with the artist’s X’ed eyes. He has also collaborated with retailer Uniqlo on clothing under $50.
At auction, the artist The KAWS album (2005) sold for a record $14.8 million at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in 2019. To date, a total of 38 KAWS works have sold for over $1 million each at auction.
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