Gucci filed a legal case against Forever 21 for allegedly ripping off its stripes motif.
Gucci has been reported to file multiple cease-and-desist letters to Forever 21 due to apparent imitation of style of the fast fashion retailer’s items.
According to the news report released by the Fashionista, due to such filing of cases against Forever 21 from the Gucci, Forever 21 thus sought protection from the threat of “trademark litigation”.
As per the report, the fast fashion retailer filed the case under such legality at U.S. District Court for the Central District of California’s Western Division on Monday.
It was being written on the report that the filed case document contained, “Forever 21 is not infringing any Gucci trademark. Gucci’s trademark registrations relevant to this dispute should be canceled. Gucci’s pending applications should not proceed to registration. This matter is ripe for a declaratory judgment.”
However, the cease-and-desist letters from the fashion retailer was sent to the said other company as early as December of the previous year.
The letter demands Forever 21 to stop the selling of their items and accessories that featured “any and all use of blue-red-blue stripes”.
A second letter was then sent the following month which is the January of 2017 and the third one on February which demands to discontinue selling of not just with “blue-red-blue stripes” but also those with “green-red-green” stripes.
Some of the items of Forever 21 who has these kind of styles are choker, multiple bomber jackets with striped trim and a striped sweater.
Furthermore, they also noted that the styles are “confusingly similar” to that of their signature stripes and they provided the Fashionista this statement:
“FOREVER 21’S REPUTATION FOR BEING ACCUSED OF PROFITING FROM THE TRADEMARKS AND COPYRIGHTS OF OTHERS, INCLUDING GUCCI, IS WELL ESTABLISHED. NOW, IN AN EFFORT TO DISTRACT FROM ITS OWN BLATANT INFRINGEMENTS, FOREVER 21 IS ATTEMPTING TO ATTACK SOME OF GUCCI’S MOST FAMOUS AND ICONIC TRADEMARKS. THIS WILL NOT DETER GUCCI FROM PURSUING ITS OWN CLAIMS AGAINST FOREVER 21 AS PART OF ITS ONGOING COMMITMENT TO THE VIGOROUS PROTECTION OF ITS VALUABLE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND DISTINCTIVE BRAND IDENTITY.”
Check out the designs below:
