Ask Annie Sloan and Lisa M Rickert not to destroy my family.
I am a single mother of 4, 2 adult children and 16 year old twins. I am also “Ama” to my precious 3 year old granddaughter. Like many other newly divorced women, I found myself trying to make a living, but as a woman approaching her senior years, that is not so easy. I started distributing Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, as it was called then, in June 2011. I trained several stockists using my own knowledge and money and started building a business. 10 months and 2 contracts later, I was scared to sign the 3rd and even more restrictive contract with Jolie Design and Décor (JDD) who is the North American Distributor for Annie Sloan Interiors, a UK based company, and terminated my contract with them. In April 2012 I took a deep breath, invested all of my retirement savings and my son invested his inheritance from his Granny and we started “van Gogh Chalk Paint Collection”. My daughter in law joined the team soon after. In July 2013, I agreed to change my name to “van Gogh Fossil Paint” and in September 2013 I made an official announcement to change the name. Really! No one can say the words chalk and paint to describe paint with chalk in it? We have been known as van Gogh Fossil Paint ever since. In February of 2014 JDD spent a considerable amount of money to force me into arbitration against my will to get me to stop using the name “chalk paint” – something I had already willingly done! They were successful in obtaining an award for their legal fees in excess of $67,000 USD – about $100,000 to me in Canadian dollars! I can’t even dream of having that kind of money! Why did they spend all that money to stop me from doing something I had already stopped?  They must have very deep pockets.  I can’t pay them. I can't even imagine being able to pay them.  In fact, when we started in this business we were 1 of 4 competitors, now there are more than 50. My son has taken a full time job in construction and my daughter in law has gone back to work at the hockey rink (where they met) because the business cannot pay them. I am desperately trying to keep things running. We are grateful and indebted to our beloved Paintologists who are men and women just like us, simply trying to make a living. I will hang on tooth and nail and lift heavy paint buckets to fill orders all by myself to keep things going. I’m just trying to empower myself and to empower others to spread love and beauty and happiness, one can of Fossil Paint at a time. Like many others in these hard economic times, I'm just trying to put food on the table and keep my head above water.  JDD will be able to force me to sell my home to pay them. I won’t qualify for a new mortgage and my family and I will lose our home, our community and our school. I will lose my business. Why crush us? We have 50 retailers, they have 673. They dominate the market! They are the huge player, I am just a flyspeck in the scheme of things.  This will not help Annie Sloan Interiors or JDD, it will only destroy my family. I am begging for mercy. Lisa M Rickert, Annie Sloan, please, use your power for good. Please drop this case against me.