National craft giant Michaels has hauled Chicago muralist Jordan Nickel - better known in street-art circles as POSE - into federal court in Texas after a fight over a single photo turned into a full-blown legal brawl.
At the center of the dispute is an image of Nickel spraying paint that appeared on Michaels' product page promoting Ironlak spray paint. Nickel sent a cease-and-desist letter on Jan. 5 demanding that the retailer pull the image. Instead of quietly moving on, Michaels filed a lawsuit on Tuesday in federal court in Texas, asking a judge to declare that the company did not infringe the artist’s rights.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Nickel spotted a photo of his arm spraying Ironlak acrylic paint that appeared in an online sale listing for the product, running from June through early January. The lawsuit says Michaels leaned on a 2014 sponsorship arrangement between Nickel and Ironlak’s maker, AVT Paints, and that AVT told Michaels it had a “longstanding relationship” with the artist. Based on that, Michaels is seeking a declaratory judgment in Texas that it has not infringed Nickel’s property rights.
“He clearly never authorized Michaels to use his artwork,” Nickel’s lawyer Jeff Gluck told the Chicago Sun-Times, blasting the retailer’s lawsuit as “a transparent attempt to discourage and intimidate” the artist and saying Nickel has received an “outpour of support” from the global artist community. Lawyers for Michaels could not be reached for comment, the article notes, and Michaels removed the image after receiving the letter. The result is a standoff that pits a national retail brand against a well-known local muralist.
Nickel's Work And The Ironlak Connection
Nickel paints under the name POSE and has completed public murals around Chicago and nearby Evanston, including a piece at 824 Noyes Street, documented by Art Encounter. The City of Evanston also highlights the Noyes Street installation on its public art pages. Ironlak, the spray paint brand at the center of the dispute, is produced by AVT Paints and publicly leans on its artist partnerships as part of its identity; see Ironlak for background.
Copyright And What Could Decide The Case
Federal copyright law makes registration and timing crucial. A registration can affect whether statutory damages or attorneys’ fees are available, and it plays into when a lawsuit can even be filed. The Supreme Court’s Fourth Estate decision clarified that copyright owners usually must wait for the Copyright Office to act on a registration before suing, as explained by SCOTUSblog, and congressional analyses have underscored registration’s role in enforcement; see the House report for more. Those procedural mechanics matter here because the complaint alleges Nickel's work was not registered until January, which could affect what remedies are available.
What To Watch Next
The case will likely hinge on whether any license or sponsorship between Nickel and AVT actually covered Michaels' use of the image and whether Michaels reasonably relied on that claimed permission. Michaels is asking a Texas court to clear the record and say it did nothing wrong. Nickel and his lawyers are expected to push just as hard on the argument that the artist never consented to the retailer’s use. Expect more filings in federal court and a close look at the written agreements and registration timeline that sit at the heart of both sides' arguments.
