Roselle artist says company is playing reindeer games

Somebody stole Rudolph, and Sandra Zimnicki wants him back.

Zimnicki, a Roselle "illuminated yard art" designer, is embroiled in a long-running legal battle against a Chinese company she says stole her design for a Christmas reindeer and then mass-marketed it across the world.

She sued the company, Neo-Neon of America, in 2006, along with several stores that sold the allegedly infringing products, including a major home-improvement store and a national hardware store chain. Those companies have settled, said Zimnicki and her attorney, Barry Irwin of Kirkland and Ellis, LLP. But Neo-Neon has been a tougher nut to crack.

The worldwide company has fought the suit, but its U.S. attorneys recently withdrew from the case, court records show. The company's phone number in California is disconnected and an e-mail request for an interview was not returned.

Last week, Zimnicki added a distributor to the lawsuit, but it is Neo-Neon that allegedly originally ripped off the design.

Zimnicki said she was working for a company that did large light displays for businesses, and that company, in turn, introduced her to Neo-Neon, who said they wanted to market her designs.

Zimnicki "made a number of designs that they were going to market under a license agreement," said Irwin.

Company representatives repeatedly said they intended to sign a licensing agreement with her, but kept putting off the signing, Irwin said. Eventually, Zimnicki determined they were just leading her on. She demanded her designs back and told the company not to manufacture them.

"They (Neo-Neon) came out with them nonetheless," said Irwin.

Zimnicki said she found out about it when a friend saw a catalog with the products inside and called her.

Zimnicki called the Neo-Neon representative she had been working with, who blithely told her he was still working on getting her a deal to distribute with a national retail store.

That deal never happened, but Neo-Neon marketed the deer around the world, Zimnicki said.

"The deer are very popular. They're advertised for sale in just about every country that I've gone on line to check," she said.

Chile, Korea and Japan are just some of the countries where her deer can now be found, she said.

Zimnicki is no stranger to commercial success with her designs. She has had displays at the John Hancock Center, North Riverside Plaza and the Sears Tower.

She also designed the "North Pole Village," a top-selling collection of elf figurines.

But so far, she hasn't been able to win anything from the company she says stole her deer design.

She said "it's just a tremendous amount of work" to go after a company, especially an international company, and prove product infringement.