What Was That About Glass Houses?

Last year, glassblower Robert Kaindl found himself on the business end of a lawsuit alleging copyright infringement against well-known glass artist Dale Chihuly. Rather than settle the suit, Kaindl is countersuing, and his complaint takes some potentially devastating shots at Chihuly’s business practices, claiming that the artist is “not involved in conceiving, creating, designing or even signing a ‘substantial number’ of artworks that bear his name. Kaindl also maintains in his claim that Chihuly sometimes buys glasswork from other artists, removes their names and then puts his own trademarked name on it.”