Foundrae Sues Pandora, Alleging Talisman Collection Copied Medallion Designs

When Pandora launched its Talisman collection in August 2025 with 12 medallions built around symbols like a lion, a rose, arrows, and celestial motifs, it entered territory that Foundrae had spent a decade cultivating. Pandora continued selling the pieces even after receiving a cease-and-desist letter in October 2025. On February 17, Foundrae filed a lawsuit against Pandora in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging the Talisman collection infringes on its copyright-protected medallion designs.

The suit, brought by Fross Zelnick Lehrman & Zissu on behalf of Foundrae, accuses Pandora of copying two medallion designs protected by registered copyrights. Court documents show a side-by-side comparison of pieces that Foundrae says Pandora "copied nearly verbatim." Beyond the designs themselves, Foundrae also accused Pandora of replicating its collage-style, mood board marketing aesthetic in how the Talisman medallions are merchandised in-store.

Designer Beth Hutchens established Foundrae in 2015, creating signature 18-karat gold medallions with diamonds, featuring motifs drawn from mythology and nature. Her pieces are available in more than 20 distinct designs, including Resilience, Infinite Gratitude, and Wholeness, can be customized to order, and cost up to $69,000. Pandora's Talisman collection, made of recycled sterling silver, was positioned as affordable luxury and priced from $45 to $125. The price delta is starkest on a shared motif: Foundrae's "Balance" medallion, featuring the sun and moon, starts at $3,600 for its smallest size, while Pandora's sun and moon medallion retails for $70.

That $3,530 gap is precisely what makes this lawsuit useful for shoppers to understand. The jewelry industry shorthand for Pandora's Talisman is "dupe" — a piece engineered to approximate a luxury original at mass-market price. But the legal question is narrower than aesthetics: it turns on what, exactly, copyright law can protect. Ancient symbols — a lion, a crescent, a sun — belong to no one. What copyright covers is the specific creative expression: the proportions of a border, the relationship between compositional elements, the particular rendering that gives a design its identity. Foundrae holds registered copyrights on the two specific designs named in the complaint, which is why the case is framed as copyright infringement rather than the harder-to-prove trade dress claim.

For anyone who owns fine medallion jewelry and cares about its resale value, the Foundrae case offers a practical lesson in provenance. Style names matter: Foundrae's pieces carry registered names like "Balance" and "Resilience" that map to specific registered designs, creating a paper trail that distinguishes an original at appraisal or resale. Original receipts, style numbers, maker's marks, and brand certificates of authenticity are the documentation that holds value when a copy enters the market. Pandora's Talisman pieces carry the company's maker's mark, but they operate in an entirely different tier — and any buyer conflating the two is making a material error, legally and metallurgically.

Foundrae seeks monetary damages, a permanent injunction against further sales, and a product recall. Pandora did not respond to requests for comment by press time. Foundrae's statement was direct: "We take the integrity of our creative work seriously, and we will always stand firmly in defense of it."

Foundrae's celebrity following, which includes Taylor Swift, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Emily Ratajkowski, gives the case unusual visibility. When a $3,600 piece and a $70 piece share enough design DNA to end up in federal court under case number 1:26-cv-01331, the question of what a medallion is actually worth acquires a legal dimension that no amount of mood-board marketing can obscure.