lawsuits

Good news: Tiffany & Co has won their counterfeiting lawsuit. Basically, they won nearly $1 million in damages for trademark counterfeiting lawsuit; the defendants were sellers of the kind of fake Tiffany's merchandise you find in Asia and on street corners in NYC.

"We are pleased to announce this judgment. Trademark counterfeiting severely damages brand owners and consumers alike. The way to stop it is to take aggressive action against the counterfeiters and make them pay, criminally as well as civilly," said Michael Kowalski, Tiffany's chairman and chief executive officer in WWD. Tiffany reps also said the award they received, $956,793.15, had already been paid in full by the defendant, Yaniv Shamir.

Chloe has successfully convinced retailer Topshop to pull a certain dress off their shelves, reports gossip blog ValleyPop. The Topshop dress is an almost exact copy of a lemon yellow Chloe mini dungaree. The Chloe dress is around $250, while the Topshop version checks in at a cool $50. Topshop had sold about 774 dresses before Chloe slapped them with a lawsuit. Topshop ended up settling and paying Chloe 12,000 pounds.

ValleyPop reports that the design hous has adopted a "zero tolerance" policy when it comes to design infringement. Several other "design infringement cases (are) in the pipeline," according to Chloe's law firm.

"We paid them £12,000 without any admission over whether it was or wasn't [a copy]. We felt it was easier to do that and get on with the rest of our lives." Sir Philip Green admitted.

Source

Levi's, known to many as the grandfather of denim and revered by celebrities and real people alike for their perfect jeans, has filed a lawsuit against Polo Ralph Lauren for copying their trademarked pocket stitch design.

Levi’s said Polo Ralph Lauren “has in the past and continues to manufacture, source, market and/or sell clothing that displays stitching designs that are confusingly similar to [Levi Strauss & Co.’s] arcuate trademark,” WWD reported.

A post at Ethnic Denim Fashion Blog sums it up best: "Intellectual property is very a huge deal in fashion today. Designs are the backbone of any design house, one bad season and you might as well shut down." It's true-- intellectual property has become a very heated topic in fashion. usually, we see low-end stores like Forever 21 shamelessly copying the designs of high-end designers like Anna Sui, Diane Von Furstenburg, and many more. Therefore, it is an interesting twist to see someone accuse an established designer house like Polo Ralph Lauren of copying a design -- it will be interesting to see these two companies to head to head!