You can guess my surprise when I opened up my Facebook app to see a message from the imaging community (thank you @practicalsono)telling me about a company advertising a watch with a design that I had made years ago!

If you are not familiar with my artwork, I make medical cartoons geared towards doctors as a hobby. It’s something I’ve been doing for about a decade. For a few years I was contracted and paid for my work that was published on DiagnosticImaging.com. It was a fun hobby, but life and other interests left me no time to pursue my doodling career.

My cartoons used to be posted on my old website, PoorMD.com. You can check out all my cartoons in my portfolio here.

So this company ripped off my cartoon, “A Radiologist’s Day” to put on a watch to sell to the masses. They even took the time to take off my name and website from the original cartoon. Here is the original cartoon which was pretty popular in radiology circles on social media.

So I went to the website to check out this watch and found this:

Well, I didn’t know if I should be flattered or upset over the matter. I know many people use my images for conferences and while some people ask me for permission to use my work, I know there are many who do not. I’ve been to national conferences where my cartoon has shown up in Power Point presentations.

But all that does not bother me as it is for a good cause and no one is making money off of my hard work. In addition, when my cartoons are presented, people see the website and can find the rest of my work, like a citation on an academic paper.

But when someone takes the time to take my name and website off of my work and then sell it for a profit without my knowledge, that can be upsetting. I thought about contacting legal help or writing a nasty email.

But in the end, I simply wrote a short and polite email asking them not to use my image without my permission. They agreed, and the item was taken down minutes later.

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.” -Oscar Wilde

Famous poet and playwright Oscar Wilde was right. After this incident, I should feel flattered. Who knows, maybe this will encourage me to start drawing again.