The Business & Ethics Of Sea Glass

It is sometimes hard being the oldest Internet site selling sea glass jewelry. Over the years we have had so many incidents copying our site content, ideas and designs that just defending it could be a full time job in itself.

Though we are aggressive in confronting those individuals that copy our content and most everyone had been accommodating about removing copied content or designs.

When I helped to write the NASGA code of ethics, I thought that it would provide at least a little protection for competitors who had also joined the group. This has proven not to be the case. In my defense to some recent attacks, I am posting this on my blog.(Ironically only 1 week after posting this blog, I received notice from the NASGA that the Code Of Ethics Statement had been totally removed and combined in a streamlined mission statement with no reference to honoring trademarks, intellectual property etc....)


SO - For the Record......
We have been online for over 15 years, first as a HTML site that I made myself and that was hosted not under our current domain name but on our providers free website area....We operated at that time as By The Sea Jewelry and have been for 18 years.

The Internet was young back then so it took me hundreds of hours to hone the site, meta tags, content to get listed in the search engines...Funny enough, the site back then, no longer in existence, that always ranked above me was a slow loading homemade site as well and it frustrated me that it kept getting ranked higher as there was no content to speak of.


Genuine Sea Glass

We have been using Genuine Sea Glass as a trademark in use  or TM (a Legal Definition defined by the USTPO as an unregistered mark.) Unregistered trademarks OR trademarks in use are used widely in business everywhere - See Wikiapedia for general definition or the USTPO site which starts as "Do you need to register a trademark - NO...) .

Since we do not have the time or resources to defend each incident of using this unregistered mark in court, we changed our phrase to Certified Genuine Sea Glass, we are currently working on registering this mark as to protect our interests.

Many other professional sites respectfully use instead of our TM use, Natural, Authentic, Real, Found, etc.....or variations thereof. We thank them for their respect for our intellectual property!

Website Design

Several companies have actually copied out EXACT meta tags, descriptions and keywords so much so that they still have By The Sea, in their keywords.Over time, I developed my meta tags and static site pages and was finally listed as one of the top sites under our search terms......this made us a target for new sites coming online....Thankfully, most search engines no longer use these tags to rank a site.

The tag line Sea Glass Jewelry (seaglass jewelry) or beach glass jewelry (beachglass jewelry) from By The Sea Jewelry combines Genuine Sea Glass TM (natural found sea glass) ,,,etc....was soon copied by MANY and can still be seen as a influence on many other sea glass sites.
What is Sea Glass?

We were also the first page to have a "What is Sea Glass" page from Dec 1999, which can now be seen on just about every other sea glass site online. This too has been a target of copy, in part and in whole.

The oldest online cache of this page which dates back to April 2000 can be seen at http://web.archive.org/web/20001215121800/www.bytheseajewelry.com/glass.htm


Original Settings

The page above also shows a design/technique design that we originated and that has never appeared in an instructional magazine or book and which we have had copied by competitors. I challenge any competitor to demonstrate an example of this setting at an earlier date or to provide me with and article of book that exhibits this technique of setting sea glass. I am confident that they will not be able to do so.


Left is a letter from Charles Peden, co-founder of the NASGA about this setting.







Terms And Phrases

Many of the words and terms we have been using since the beginning, "Distinctive", "Specializing In" "Carelessly Discarded" bottles and glass are tumbled in the ocean form these colorful gems of the shore" 


More recent terms include - "Ultra Rare" , "REMEMBER - This is the EXACT piece you will receive" and our description of English Sea Glass as EndODay (The term EndOday actually happened because my custom built shopping cart only allows for so many characters and to save on space, I abbreviated to form this term) ALSO my description that it came from a "Victorian Era Glass Factory that discarded scarps over a cliff into the North Sea", copied by a competitor EXACTLY WORD FOR WORD, and when I addressed the issue to them and explained how and why EndODay came about, this person literally told me in an email, that they just pulled that term and the phrase "Out of their A$#"........ I mean really!


While it is not unethical practice to monitor your competitors, it is unethical harass them by reference to their work and websites, making legal conclusions as to their rights and post defamatory statements online to their peers.

We have never publicly attacked this persons designs, or copy protections and in fact have defended their property when applicable (when we notified them via email that a new commercial site was using a photo I knew they owned). We have also defended other sea glass artists intellectual property pertaining to a Color Chart that was posted on our social site, deleting it as we knew it to be copy protected.

We quite frankly only wish to be left alone to do our work. One of the reasons I named my company, By The Sea Jewelry, was a desire for anonymity...

My Google Analytics have the above mentioned person hitting my site over 10,000 page views in the last two years (once last January they hit our site over 20 times in one day - note Page Count is an average not a total). Some days the person visits hundreds of pages.

Funny enough, this person continues to hit my "What is Sea Glass" (195 + times which is funny as a self proclaimed pioneer in the sea glass field, I would think they would know what sea glass is by now)!

Also my Press Page (About the Artist) page 216 or more times,,,,,(shows a trend of obsession for me that this "person" concerning my business and website) I truly feel like I am being stalked.

Example below


Other high hit pages from this person include:


Our Blues & Aquas Page 944 times

Sterling Silver Bracelets 256 times

Green & Seafoam Pendants 472 times

Reds & Purple Pendants 259 times


Once a month I check my competitors to see what they are doing, sales they offer, etc......I honestly believe that this persons using the English sea glass phrase came by osmosis by visiting my site so heavily and that they sadly may really not believe that they got it from our site.

Also more recently, this person claims a design names that  we have been using online for over 5 and that are also used by at least 4 other sea glass jewelry companies are using. Their new site claims legal ownership of all phrases, slogans, designs and such, yet she does not grant the same rights or privileges to our site that has been online for over 15 years.

They have stated that we have "bullied harassed and intimated people", which if emailing someone and asking them to remove content you have written from their site, or discontinue to use a design we originated, or simply asking them for their mailing address is any of the above, well,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

This person (as of 6/18/10) states on her social that she finds this post (or attacks as she calls them) "disgusting" and that I "routinely portrays me (her) in a false light, and has initiated some personal attacks that I (she) find disgusting". She accuses me now of leaving "rude and obnoxious comments for some of our (her) members" 

What exactly does she find disgusting, supporting attacks with facts and figures? (something which she is unable to do as these accusations are baseless).

-If anyone reading this finds this post "disgusting" please email me....or post a comment....I have tried to maintain my composure and be judicial.



Our Designs

Occasionally we find competitors that copy some of our original proprietary settings. The letter (below ) can in 2006 from a Maine Artist naively asking me to tell them how to make an original setting. Imagine if say, a new soda company wrote to Coke and told them they would like to get into the soda business and could Coke please tell them the recipe for the soda. She no longer uses the EXACT design but now uses a version she has made her own.....


REALLY,,,,,,,,,,I have only offered and referenced statistics and copies of emails..........I have made NO attacks on character or property rights, I have only defended mine as well as others.

It is hard for me to understand as her silver work is exceptional.

Another Sea Glass jewelry maker in Rhode Island who when I first contacted about using this design, first told me that they had "seen it in a book", then that, " their sister had shown it to them" then just that "there were only so many ways to wrap sea glass. I finished by convos with them, I ended with simply replying "Yes, and that is MY way", She then asked me for an ISBN code (International Standard Book Number not used on designs or photos), Too Funny huh?

....In researching my sales records to see if this person had indeed ordered from me (as I have had other competitors attempt to order proprietary settings and request wholesale information) , I found this individual had indeed ordered from my website about a year before. When I asked them to confirm a mailing address so that my attorney could contact them, this person claimed to be fearful that I was stalking them.......

Really, think about it, if you woke up one morning to find your neighbor had moved your car from your driveway to theirs and was now claiming it to be theirs, wouldn't YOU contact your attorney or the police. Policing the Internet is a bit harder though.

In monitoring other sites, we often find incidents of design and name and phrase theft. Below are two pics, the top one is my Ultimate Sea Glass Lovers bracelet that has been on my site for well over 4 years on the Sea Glass Ideas page.

Quite recently I found the second photo on another sea glass jewelers site, Also called The Ultimate Sea Glass Lovers Bracelet.

When I contacted this person, they immediately changed the name of the piece. It still bears evidence our influence in the industry



This artist too has some of the finest silver work online so why they would want to copy me is a mystery.

II did not pursue the design issue as I believe that most drilled sea glass of generic design.

 I simply pointed out to this jeweler the "coincidence" of pieces being NAMED THE SAME and even POSED the same way.

This post is meant to counter attacks made by ONE individual concerning my reputation, legal rights, integrity and standing in the sea glass community. I hope that this post helps to clear up the disinformation that she has posted online. All 3 of the examples above are members of her social sea glass community.

We will continue to monitor our competition & YES, continue to defend our designs and content we ask only to be left alone. All we ask if for our competitors to

"Do your own work" and use your own words. 

Take inspiration but develop your own skills and talents.

With a very busy Full Time business, we have little time to pursue issues as stated in this blog. Most people we contact that have used our content or designs are very gracious and accommodating and we thank them for their professionalism.