Attorneys for noted artist Jeff Koons sent a letter asking Park Life (220 Clement) right before Christmas asking the local store to stop selling and advertising their charming balloon dog bookends, "return them to some mutually agreed upon address, [and] tell Koons how many have been sold and disclose the maker of said bookends."

Well, that's just mean. Not to mention totally bizarre, especially for Koons. As Bay Citizen's Reyhan Harmanci points out: "Artists, of course, have every reason to protect their rights, but this legal threat brings up an interesting question: Can one copyright a balloon animal? And how does an artist who has been repeatedly sued for inappropriately using others' copyrighted images get off attacking Park Life?"

For their part, Park Life (an excellent store, by the way) had this to say.

[BC]