Luckily the laws we have to address mobsters who deliberately keep the illegality in the hands of arms-length peons don’t apply to non-scare-quoted legitimate businessmen; or they might have a problem with a 'the intern did it, we shipped it in volume without even a cursory check; and now we are digging in and litigating against the person who told us that we have a problem" strategy.
I, also, wouldn’t be at all surprised if some intern or expendable contractor did the initial infringing; but likelihood that it was just a peon exceeding authorization decreases as you move through the process of bringing the design to market; and disintegrates when you have your legal department trying to make the artist go away.
