A Danish art student has been sued by French fashion giant Louis Vuitton over an image she created to bring attention to the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region.
Nadia Plesner has produced a design featuring a black child holding a tiny dog and a trademark patterned Louis Vuitton handbag. It's reproduced on T-shirts and posters she's created.
"Everyone knows the image of a small starving black child. We have seen it so many times now, but it doesn't work anymore," said the 26-year-old, who studies in Amsterdam.
All the attention from the lawsuit for infringing copyright has resulted in more than 4,000 orders for the T-shirt and posters, according to Plesner. T-shirts cost $54 CDN while the poster are $20 CDN
Louis Vuitton, part of the French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, has taken issue with her unauthorized use of its trademark and copyright "for commercial purposes."
"This issue is important to Louis Vuitton because it directly impacts the brand on which our company has been built and which we must protect," it said in a statement.
Plesner says the image is meant to mock the media's obsession with show business at the expense of other global issues.
"I don't want to change the bag but I need to discuss with my lawyers what can we do," she said.
She said profits were going to the Divest for Darfur campaign, which hopes to use economic pressure on the Sudanese government to co-operate with international efforts to end the violence.
Plesner has plans to meet Louis Vuitton executives in Paris on May 30. She says she wants to convince them to work with her.
The UN estimates some 300,000 people have died in the five-year conflict while 2.5 million have been made homeless in the west Sudanese region.
The Arab-dominated Sudanese government in Khartoum has been accused of unleashing a militia of Arab nomads known as the janjaweed to commit atrocities against Darfur's black African communities. | 
