SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The author of the iconic poem “Footprints in the Sand” has signed a licensing agreement authorizing a leading British retailer to use her copyrighted work on its jewelry and collectibles.
The licensing deal between Margaret Fishback Powers, author of “Footprints in the Sand,” and Owen & Williamson Ltd., trading as the online and catalogue retailer Brooks & Bentley, makes the company the exclusive U.K. seller of jewelry and collectibles bearing excerpts of the poem. In exchange, Mrs. Powers receives royalties from Owen & Williamson, which also assigned to Mrs. Powers a U.K. trademark it had obtained for the stylized mark “FOOTPRINTS.”
The agreement coincided with the release of the new edition of “Footprints: The True Story Behind the Poem,” Mrs. Powers’ inspiring book about her creation in 1964 of the poem.
The deal is the latest in a series of licenses Mrs. Powers has granted companies and artists in North America, Europe and Asia for use of her poem. Among those who have obtained licenses are book publishers (including HarperCollins), greeting-card companies (including Hallmark), recording artists and the makers of such diverse goods as ceramics (including Lenox), figurines and clothing.
“Footprints in the Sand” has stirred generations of believers with its dialogue between God and a narrator experiencing a crisis of faith. The narrator, looking back on life, sees two sets of footprints in the sand, one of them God’s and one the narrator’s own. In times of trouble, there were just one set of prints, causing the narrator to question whether God had vanished.
The poem closes with God’s reply:
“When you saw only one set of footprints
It was then that I carried you.”
Brooks & Bentley (formerly a subsidiary of Lenox) offers jewelry and other unique items engraved with that passage, or with a single set of footprints.
Mrs. Powers has registered multiple copyrights establishing her authorship and ownership of the poem, including U.S. Reg No. TX-4-077-417 and Canadian Reg. No. 269540. Mrs. Powers is also the owner of the trademarks FOOTPRINTS® and FOOTPRINTS IN THE SAND®, which are registered in the United States and abroad for a broad array of products and services.