Wisconsin artist fights retail giant over Halloween design — claims TJ Maxx, Marshalls, HomeSense ‘trampled on’ her vision. Does she have a case?

In 2023, Cox posted a print she called Spooky Scoops to her Instagram. But two years later, she started receiving messages from friends and customers who said they’d spotted three-dimensional versions of her design for sale at TJ Maxx, Marshalls and Homesense — all owned by TJX Companies.

"Everything that I make and create, I'm putting a piece of myself into that, that's my idea, that's my vision. It's how I see the world," Cox told WTMJ-TV Milwaukee (1). "So, when you have someone just kind of trample over it like that. It hurts. It genuinely hurts. It just kinda makes me feel small."

Stories like Cox’s aren’t rare. Small artists often find their work echoed on the shelves of major retailers. Beyond the frustration, he case highlights a bigger concern for anyone making a living from their art: what protections are in place, and what can independent creators do to safeguard thei/r work before it’s copied?

Small artists, big retailers

For Cox, the timing made the situation even harder to process. She was already coping with her father’s battle with cancer, and he had always encouraged her to protect her work and take herself seriously as an artist. When she recognized her design on store shelves, she decided to act.

She reached out to Justice for Artists, a zero-cost litigation group that pairs creators with attorneys for copyright disputes. Its founder, Daniel Lachman, says cases like Cox’s surface far more often than people realize.

This isn’t the first time a small artist has faced off against a big company. In 2013, Oakland illustrator Lisa Congdon said wholesaler Cody Foster & Co. reproduced her artwork on holiday ornaments without permission. The controversy prompted retailers, including West Elm, Anthropologie and Fab to pull the products and cut ties with the company.

At the time, Cody Foster released a statement to The Los Angeles Times that read, in part (2):

“Our explanation for how this happened is simple, though not excusable. Unfortunately, it occurs regularly in this industry. Documenting ‘artistic inspiration’ for reproduced craft products — particularly for those based on folk designs -- is a difficult process and presents a huge challenge for suppliers, artists and retailers alike.”

No lawsuit was publicly filed, but the company’s retail relationships took a hit. Congdon said the resolution allowed her to move on, though no settlement terms were disclosed.

In Cox’s case, she automatically owned the copyright to Spooky Scoops the moment she created it. But she didn’t file a formal copyright registration with the U.S. Copyright Office until this year — after she discovered the lookalike products.

"In Crystal's case, she copyrighted her art after the infringement took place. So she's going to only be entitled to total profits that were garnered during the sale," Lachman said.

Protecting your work

Under U.S. copyright law, artists automatically own the rights to their original work as soon as it’s created (3). But formal registration with the U.S. Copyright Office allows them to file a lawsuit in federal court and to seek statutory damages, attorney’s fees and, in some cases, compensation beyond the profits made from the copied product. Registration typically costs $45 to $65 (4).