[A] Toronto-based designer says Burton, the most famous name in snowboarding, used one of her mitten designs without giving her credit, after a Burton employee ordered a pair of the mittens delivered to Burton headquarters.
Burton dropped the design ahead of the current winter season, but the independent designer maintains she was never given credit for the design.
Anna-Maria Mountfort owns mimiTENS, a design company she founded when she realized her little kids and others tended to lose their gloves and mittens when they were playing outside. Her solution: Sew some socks to the open end of mittens, creating an extension that fits snug to a child’s arm, making it much harder to accidentally shed in the course of just being a kid.
According to Mountfort, mimiTENS started getting some buzz and in 2015 she received an online order from a customer in Vermont using a burton.com email address. She was skeptical and called up the Burton employee, who told Mountfort the gloves were for a gift for her niece.
The next winter, Burton released a line of mittens and gloves with an extended cuff, calling them Minishreds. The design details were somewhat different — the snowboarding giant had more rugged material that fit in with Burton’s other apparel lines — but Mountfort was convinced that Burton had appropriated her design.
Mountfort didn’t have a patent for her design at the time, although she had one in the approval process and ultimately received a patent. But when she did get her patent, and notified Burton as such, the company simply ceased production on its line.
“I think they were definitely inspired by them,” Mountfort said.
She said a couple of other U.S. manufacturers make gloves or mittens with a stay-up sleeve, but she feels mimiTENS are “special” because she knits patterns into her sleeves. She points to the fact that Burton’s line also had patterns on the sleeves, unlike other stay-up models.
In a statement, Burton CEO Donna Carpenter said she looked into Mountfort’s concerns and found Burton “had done nothing wrong as far as patents go. Multiple brands make gloves and mitts with extended cuffs — it’s an extremely common feature.
“Even so, I felt it was important to personally correspond with Anna-Maria because I very much respect her passion and entrepreneurship. Over the course of nearly two years, we wrote back and forth, discussing everything from her patent concerns to the Women’s March and her daughters’ love of snowboarding. When she wrote me one year ago about receiving a patent, I personally congratulated her and said the world needs more women entrepreneurs.
“Sadly, the last response I received from her in late October was unprofessional and downright hostile. It was clear from the angry tone of her message that she was hoping to receive money from us — even though we had done nothing wrong. All along, we’ve taken Anna-Maria’s concerns seriously, looked into them and responded transparently. Despite our difference in opinion on this matter, I wish her the best of luck with her business.”
Legal or public opinion
Mountfort said she had done her homework and considered legal action, but instead chose to try to tell her story in the media, in the court of public opinion. She told her story to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. this past fall and she went on “As it Happens,” a popular radio show also produced by the CBC.
“When you’re a David-and-Goliath case, you’re arguing on the basis of values, and to think the legal system is the only place where values can be discussed openly and freely is wrong,” Mountfort said. “If big companies can use the press to advance their image and their companies, why can’t small companies use the press to advance their values?”
She has had correspondence with Burton’s legal team, though. Mountfort showed emails she exchanged with a Burton lawyer just as the 2015-16 winter season was getting started, asking the company to acknowledge Mountfort as the designer and even partner with mimiTENS.
At the time, Mountfort had applied for, but had not yet received, patents for her design. She has since received Canadian and U.S. patents.
The lawyer, Sonya Sibold, told Mountfort on Dec. 14, 2015, that her “prospects for securing patent protection remain remote.”
“Further, as I previously explained, even were your patent claims to issue in their present form, they would not embrace the current Burton product offerings,” Sibold wrote. “Thus, there is not apparent business reason for Burton to engage in discussions with your company at this time.”
Mountfort points to the fact that Burton discontinued its Minishred line after she started corresponding with Donna Carpenter and Burton’s legal team as evidence the company knew it was caught appropriating a design.
And she remains convinced that the fact that a Burton employee ordered a pair of mimiTENS to be delivered to Burton’s South Burlington mother ship remains a smoking gun.
“If you can explain who vetted the idea and why the employee ordered it to your address, we’d be in a different place,” Mountfort said. “This is not about patents. This is about business ethics.”
‘Burton girl’
Particularly galling to Mountfort is Donna Carpenter’s avowed dedication to women’s empowerment, especially to female entrepreneurs.
In early 2017, a year after her initial correspondence with Burton’s lawyer, Carpenter spoke on the CBC’s “As it Happens” about how Burton paid its employees to go to Washington, D.C., to participate in the Women’s March. Mountfort said she was “shocked” to hear Carpenter talk about female business leaders at the same time she, a female business owner, was being stonewalled by Burton.
Until then, she didn’t even know Carpenter was the company CEO — she’d always associated the brand with Jake Burton, Carpenter’s husband.
So, she reached out to Carpenter and told her about her situation. The email reply from Carpenter, which Mountfort shared, sounded apologetic, and even noted Burton was planning to discontinue the Minishred line, “eliminating the issue for you.”
“I can’t really speak to patent issues, but I can tell you I’m sorry if Burton came across as a typical large corporation. Sometimes the lawyers forget that there are real people with real ideas out there,” Carpenter wrote in early 2017. “You sound like the definition of a Burton girl and I am truly sorry that our actions upset you.”
Mountfort said she had long been a Burton customer, outfitting herself and her kids in the company’s gear.
She said she would be happy if Burton collaborated with mimiTENS, pointing out the snowboard giant has partnerships that range from professional riders like Shaun White to musical celebrities like Gwen Stefani. Mountfort also has at least one celebrity fan — actress Gwyneth Paltrow plugged mimiTENS on her Goop blog.
Mountfort said she doesn’t aspire to be Burton. She just wants some recognition of her product.
“I don’t want a large company with 500 people,” she said. “I just want to do what I do unmolested. Please don’t (bleep) with me.”
