Right now, stores around the country are preparing for Christmas shopping with all that it entails. Christmas tree ornaments and potential Christmas presents fill store shelves and online stores.
Staffan Willershausen from Borlänge was in a store in Stockholm here the other day when he reacted to the store chain Åhléns selling hand-counted dalas made in China as Christmas tree ornaments.
- I thought "How did they think now?" Firstly, they associate it with a Christmas ornament and then they order from China. It's not a variant either, but really a bad copy, ”says Staffan Willerhausen, who also received several reactions from others when he shared the image of the valley horses in social media.
- I wondered if it is even allowed to do so, he says.
Original manufacturer: "Can copy both name and appearance"Christina Liljegren at Granna's Hemslöjd in Nusnäs, which is the oldest of the Swedish valley horse producers. She says it is not criminal to copy the valley horse.
- The Dalahest has no protection, it is owned by the old people by the Swedish people according to the Swedish Patent and Registration Office, so you can copy both the name and the appearance, says Christina Liljegren at Granna's Hemslöjd, which is the oldest of the Swedish Dalah horse producers and continues:
- A man once told me that we should be proud to be copied because then you have something worth copying, so you can see it from two directions.
It is almost exclusively Asia where the copies come from.
- We don't put so much energy into it, if we did, we wouldn't be able to produce any horses. We can't fight against different suppliers, says Liljegren.
We have applied to Åhléns for a comment, which promised to return with answers as soon as possible.