Barcelona Chair - Let's Go to Court...Again  

If it was not...
a complex matter, the two would not end up in court. But the basic principle is this: Models of or for industrially produced products are protected under a specific law that is sometimes (especially in the U.S.) refered to as a patent. It is not a patent under the patent law The patent law is limited to original inventions and a design is not considered an invention. The Alphaville lawyers are correct, any possible protection on the Barcelona chair has expired. But there is something called a trade dress claim. It considers a certain way of doing things, say the rivets on a pair of jeans as a typical part of the product, so typical that it becomes part of the trade mark. This is what Knoll has claimed and actually got registered. The registration as such does not mean anything because if challenged, as it is now by Alphaville, they would have to prouve that there exists in the publics eye, an inevitable link between the Barcelona chair and Knoll. Polaroid managed to do that and kept Kodak out of the instant development business...just before digital cameras overran the problem. Based on the history of the Barcelona chair, Knoll will have a very hard time. First of all they were not the first producers of the Barcelona chair, not even in the U.S. secondly, as Alphaville argues there are zillions of copies and some of them date back several decades. But considering the general protectionist attitude in the U.S. Basically the policy is: We want to have the right to sell to everybody but we will make it as difficult as possible to sell something to us. and given the public's attitude towards the growing importance of China as a manufacturing nation, the juge might very well jump on this opportunity to enlarge even wider the originally very narrow notion of trade dress. We will have to wait and see.
Just to be complete, the name Barcelona as related to this chair can and is protected under the copyright law and that expiration date is still decades away.

"But considering the general...
"But considering the general protectionist attitude in the U.S. Basically the policy is: We want to have the right to sell to everybody but we will make it as difficult as possible to sell something to us. "
Protectionist policy has not been the general rule for quite a long time now in the US, either with consumers or with policy makers.
But relating to the subject -- is Knoll not the finest rendition of the Barcelona chair that ever there was? And if so, why? And if not, why not?

This fight is an interesting take on
the copyright-au-go-go wars,
This chair was not originally produced by Knoll; they secured the rights after it was had been produced by Europe - I'm not sure who the original maker was but I'm sure they are long out of business, and I'm not even there's any remaining heirs to Van Der Rohe.
With lots of American Music going OUT of copyright in Europe, it's an interesting issue; how long can a piece of copyrighted music or a piece of copyrighted furniture stay copyrighted?
Once upon a time, Knoll tried to stop all of the Hardoy Chair (designed in Argentina by Jorge Ferrari-Hardoy, Antonio Bonet and Juan Hurchan in 1938) knockoffs and they lost the case and had to stop production of their own lisenced version!
We've discussed the knockoff issue many many times; in my case, I will try to buy the original lisenced version whenever possible, but there's a point of price consideration.

Two answers
Copyright on music literature, pictures, art etc. etc. is the longest protection and is based on a number of years after the year in which the artist / composer/ etc. died. In many countries it is 50 years but there are small differences.
On products there is no copyright possible! If it is an invention, it is patented and most patents last 20 years. If it is simply a model...say the Barcelona chair, it can only be protected under a designpatent and there again if renewed on a regular basis it can last more or less two decades depending on the country of origin. As mentioned before this is not the basis of the Knoll versus Alphaville case because non of the three different legislations on protection of intellectual property (other than trademark)would apply.
1-It can not be copyrighted
2-It is not patentable because it is not an invention
3-A designpatent, if their ever was one, would have expired.
This is simply a case of a trade dress claim under the trademark law.
There is a lot of literature on the subject but to get some insight:
http://inventors.about.com

Incontestable
Trade dress applies to the distinctiveness of an object: its shape, style, packaging, etc. that is unique to that object. What is most important with trade dress is that there exists in the mind of the consumer a connection between the product and the manufacturer. In this case Knoll is claiming that the shape, look, and materials of the Barcelona are representative of the chair AND of Knoll.
However, certain products have been granted additional protection beyond trade dress - something called incontestable status. What this means is that Knoll has already proven that the Barcelona falls under trade-dres protection, and that protection cannot be challenged or cancelled.
With normal trade dress Alphaville would have to prove that the design doesn't represent Knoll. But, with incontestable status that argument is going to be much harder to prove.

Howabout a video of a...
Howabout a video of a Barcelona being manufactured by Knoll, or whomever Knoll sources for the labor? Let folks see for themselves the nature of the magic dust that makes up the price disparity.
The prevailing attitude seems to be, if you can't afford a design, tough shit, and I tend to agree, but not out of faith, as most purists seem to lean toward. I think some identifiable, quantifiable differences in parts/labor should factor into the equation. As for Knoll, I know from personal experience that the peices I've owned or interfaced with are exceptionally well made and worth the extra nickels and dimes. I have not seen a hiccup in their quality control and their employees are fans and really seem to dig their jobs -- at least at the SF office. That is heartwarming to me.

I think the hand stitching...
I think the hand stitching that Knoll (+ FH for PK) use really must contribute at least a little to the price difference.
I'm sure most readers have seen this site but it does have a very short photo essay on the manufacturing and good detail about grades of steel etc. Grinding down welds and polishing is an extra-ordinarily dirty and tedious job, also when you roll flat bar into curves the ends allways remain flat (up to about 9") which you can see being cut off in one of the pictures. I think these manufacturers must be milling out a half lap at the X judging by the welding frame.
From sketchy memory there were 2 US manufacturers, (Gerry Griffiths and Colonial Iron Craftsmen, at one point called the Avanti chair) and pre-war it was made by Berliner Gewerbe Joseph Mueller and one other I think (Bamberg?). Knoll outsourced the production to Treitel Gratz, a good article here:
( http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=980CE3D91039F930A25757C0A...)
Which all just goes to show what a mess the arrangements were, and according to the article Gratz make Tugendhat chairs to order,independant of Knoll, so whats the story there? But if I ever come into bundles of money I'll know where to go to get one.
Are there any van der Rohe descendants engaged with Knoll?
Sorry I'm rambling, it would be really good if there was a very concise article from start to finish on this.
http://www.barcelonachair.com/StainlessSteel.php

I truly think that Alphav...
I truly think that Alphaville will win this one,
Unless Knoll has some trade dress issues that we do not know,Knoll has a 1968 agreement form Mies worked out with the help of Florance knoll even thoe she left the company, but who ever said that the chairs have been produced since the late 20's is correct they have been made by many companies but Mies chose not to let Thonet make the chairs in the early 30's They were made by lesser know companies in Italy, and France,
This whole issue with knoll is somewhat strange to me since i have a set made in 1962. by a unknown Italian company,