Following steps taken by Keep Calm and Carry On Ltd to remove Infringements of its Registered Trademark from eBay, there has been considerable comment on websites, blogs and in the media, much of it inaccurate or deliberately personally hurtful and abusive. While it loathes me to be drawn into this bitterness, I feel it only fair and right to put a balanced side of the story across. 

A hate campaign created thinly disguised as a petition against us personally has been created. It appears to suggest that we are stealing a piece of our national heritage and making it my own because I am ‘greedy’. This is in no way true and we have stolen nothing. We have a legitimate trademark against the Keep Calm And Carry On name on a certain range of products.

The ‘petition’ does not present a balanced view of the facts of the matter. We are one of a handfull of company's who have set up legitimate businesses and operate harmoniously in a marketplace which we have built up, with full acknowledgement to those who helped us get where we are.

Attacking people personally with abuse and being encouraged to do so on the strength of one sided, inaccurate half-truths is simply wrong and entirely unethical. If other traders wish to appeal the trademark, there are official channels available to them. Otherwise, we refuse to engage in or pay any further heed to this offensive venture.

We have never claimed to have discovered the poster or to have been the one who brought it to the attention of the general public – Barter Books rediscovered an original from obscurity. We have given credit where credit is due and Barter Books are the only ones who can lay claim to originally find it.

We are however someone who played a fundimemntal role in bringing it to the attention of the World. I built up a marketplace producing and selling Keep Calm and Carry On products. This is years before others jumped on the back of the bandwagon and siphoned off trade. Sales of Keep Calm and Carry On products supplied by us through retailers such as John Lewis, Heals, The V&A, River Island, Debenhams, Pedlars and many smaller shops as well as my own website have created considerable goodwill and interest in products bearing this Brand.

At no point have we ever tried to stop or interfere with anyone who had the foresight to create original products, nor do we plan to. We genuinely hope my actions generate more business for them as they rightly deserve and preserve the uniqueness longevity of this now iconic phrase.

On numerous occasions we have made attempts to come to amicable agreements to the demands of Barter Books, all of which have been refuted. All of the correspondence between tells a different story of events that the public are not aware of, if they were we believe opinions would change. 

Had we and others not had the foresight to see an opportunity and create legitimate businesses selling a range of products under the “Keep Calm and Carry On” Trademark, no one would even have been made aware of the phrase in the first place.

We too own one of a handful of the original posters purchased at an auction of wartime memorabilia and which our products are a replication of. You can read more about the auction by clicking here. Barter Books discovered their poster in around 2000, and we began in 2007 – giving them years to register the domain and create a range of items for themselves, something they chose not to do. We saw a window of opportunity in late 2006, contacted The National Archives and received clearance to use it. We are almost certain we are one of the only ones to have bothered to do this. We registered the domain www.KeepCalmAndCarryOn.com and set about producing an array of products long before competitors did so.

We, along with others, invested time, money and a great deal of effort developing Keep Calm and Carry On into what it has become today. Getting something onto the market and into the public eye in this day and age is no easy feat.

Last year, the business we had built up was suffereing majorly from the countless others who had much later jumped on the back of its success. Products were deliberately copied and priced to undercut us. and I felt that the majority was of a much cheaper inferior quality. This in turn was associated with us, giving us a bad name and tarnishing the charm of the original poster. Most resellers do not even bother to acknowledge the story behind the original. With every order sent out, the full history of the poster and how Barter Books found it is included. 

The quality of merchandise sold under the “Keep Calm and Carry On” Trademark is important to our Company. The majority of the goods are sourced and produced through small family-run British businesses. The clothing comes from a fair trade supplier, not made in a sweatshop like cheaper alternatives. Mugs and chocolate come from Scotland; posters are hand-printed by a local screen printer on artist paper. Deckchairs are made on the south coast by hand; coasters and tablemats by a company in the Midlands. An old family firm in Cornwall makes biscuits; Cufflinks in the North and the Kitchen range in the Midlands. We are very proud to be supporting the British economy and wish to continue this.

Instead of building their own original ideas, sellers on eBay are simply preying on the success of others. It is very easy to create a simple listing in five minutes and start trading on its success. However it takes years of hard work to build a business and brand. I ask: what other legitimate business would not protect its own interests in such circumstances? If not others would continue to trade off the success it created.

Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion, a virtual stocks however; throwing abuse at someone for doing no more than protecting their goodwill, reputation and business is hardly civilised. We am very pleased to say that we have also been contacted by many people offering help, support and kind messages.

Keep Calm and Carry On Ltd.