Official Statement from Provo Craft®
We at Provo Craft would like to address some of the comments that have been made recently about steps we have taken to address the sale of unauthorized software programs. We hope that providing this context will help our customers understand why we have taken these steps, and why we believe we are acting in both a fair and ethical manner.
Speaking generally, we’d like to comment about our right to seek legal protection for the products we’ve developed through legitimate means. As a creative company, we have invested significant resources to invent the Cricut and to continue to develop Cricut products. Cricut is the end-result of individuals having invested their own money, creative ideas, and hard work to bring a unique product to the crafting community. We’re also committed to improving our products, so we continually invest in innovation and in the sourcing and production of new art content for the Cricut.
As we have invented Cricut products, we have been granted copyright and trademark rights that protect us from, among other things, any company that unlawfully circumvents or ‘hacks’ our security measures for its own financial gain. We regret that exercising our legal right to protect ourselves from such activity would give any of our customers a reason to be upset with us. But we also believe that provided the facts, reasonable people will understand that the steps we have taken are legitimate and fair by virtually any standard of law and ethics.
With regard to Make the Cut!, in a jointly stipulated injunction filed in March, Make the Cut! agreed to discontinue the sale and support of its software for use with Cricut as remedy to the unlawful manner in which the software was developed. The unlawful actions cited in the injunction include violation of the Cricut Design Studio end user license agreement and violations of U.S. copyright and trademark laws. Earlier this month, Provo Craft and Make the Cut! amicably resolved the matter in a confidential settlement.
Provo Craft has filed suit against Craft Edge, Inc. alleging similar violations. Because that involves ongoing litigation Provo Craft cannot comment further on the suit at this time.
Lastly, we know that some of our customers want the ability to cut with their Cricut certain images that are not available in the Cricut library. Many of you know that in April we are releasing the first version of Cricut Craft Room, which is an all-new, free, online design platform for Cricut. Though this specific feature won’t be available initially, we intend to provide our customers the ability to cut some of their own images in Cricut Craft Room in the future. Like our customers, we’re passionate about creativity, and we’re committed to providing great products for the crafting community.
