| Two “It” Bags Duke it Out in Court |
| 06.04.08 | No Comments |
While both of these logo-ridden bags are ridiculously ugly, they managed not only to commit crimes against good taste...but to waste four years of the court's time in a heated copyright dispute. Louis Vuitton has maintained that the Dooney & Burke "It" bag infringed on LV's Takashi Murakami-designed Monograme Multicolore...however the court wasn't buying.
"[Louis Vuitton] offered no proof that the similarities in the marks is likely to confuse ordinary consumers, whether it is at the point of initial interest, point-of-sale, or post-sale," wrote U.S. District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin in a recent decision. "Even the testimony of Louis Vuitton's director of intellectual property suggests Louis Vuitton's infringement claim is not necessarily premised on a likelihood of confusion between its products and those of [the] defendant, but rather Louis Vuitton's distaste at being associated with the It Bags."
While LV naturally plans to appeal the decision, the judge actually came to the correct conclusion. Why? Common sense will tell you that a woman buying Dooney & Burke is most likely not (nor ever will be) a Louis Vuitton customer, so the Dooney bag would not have cost LV many lost sales. And most importantly, protecting a design from a competitor's version simply because of a close resemblance is anti-competitive.
In actual fact, the Dooney & Burke version probably helped LV by (unfortunately) spreading awareness of the Murakami design. (via WWD)
- Lesley Scott
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