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I am taking this opportunity to thank my friend, Adilah Bakar, who discovered about the illustrations, my lawyer Mr Harris Abdullah for the speedy demand letter, and to all who have given me support throughout this copyright issue. Thank you so much.
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Despite having a mild fever, I forced myself up this morning and went with my husband to meet the owner of Swensen’s Cafe (SC), Mr Tan Lian Ann, a very soft spoken man with a sweet face. When we came, he was in a meeting and apologised that he had to attend to us a bit late. He greeted us with a smile and invited us to his room. We talked about the issue regarding my illustrations that appeared on the calendar that his company produced as giveaway to customers. SC entrusted the graphic designer with all their creative works without knowing that the designer has a shortfall of not being able to illustrate by himself. They fired him two days after they got my e-mail. I felt sorry that the designer had to learn the hard way. But I guess he learned the lesson well, not to simply take images from the internet. Like Mr Brad said, “The default you should assume for other people’s works is that they are copyrighted and may not be copied unless you know otherwise.”

Anyway, we settled the issue amicably with help from HKM lawyers and came to an agreement that I give him the right to use my five characters for a year, for a total amount that I am not going to disclose. Mr Tan has thought this over as he didn’t want to think it as him being penalised for what his former employee did and for me not to profit from his misfortune. That is good enough for me and I agreed.

It is sad to learn that all calendars have been destroyed.

Before coming to see Mr Tan, I did a background check on him. Well, what can I do, am a big fan of Magnum PI. I found out that he is a Chess Champion so I asked him about it. He smiled and talked enthusiastically about chess. He was a chess prodigy at the age of 9 and reigned supreme in the 1950s and 60s as the Singapore and Malayan Chess Champion. He traveled the world to play in chess tournaments and in 1973, he was awarded International Master.

My husband and I had fun listening to his story and before we left, I showed him my illustrations portfolio and since he has no graphic designer, he told me that he might want me to illustrate for him. Since his company deals with a lot of kiddies stuff (Nuk and Lego), he said it’s a blessing that we meet each other as my expertise is in children illustration.

I am glad to have met Mr Tan today.