Luxury label Gucci has won $4.7m (£3.0m) of damages after US denim brand Guess was found to be imitating Gucci trademarks.
Yesterday a federal judge in America awarded the brand with £3m damages from Guess and its footwear licensee Marc Fisher. According to reports, however, Gucci had been attempting to win more than $221m (£140m) in damages, arguing that some of Guess’ designs were “studied imitations of Gucci trademarks”.
Gucci was granted the damages money for Guess’ use of the Quatro G pattern in brown and beige and for using a green-red-green stripe. The brand was also given an injunction stopping Guess from using the Quattro G pattern, the green-red-green stripe as well as other square G marks.
Guess’ chief executive officer Paul Marciano said in statement: “Gucci’s request in court was unconscionable by its scope and the amount of damages they claimed. They ‘forgot’ to claim certain trademark rights that Guess used for 23 years, such as the script logo and the court sided with Guess.”
He added: “I believe Gucci is currently court-forum shopping to find a friendly court but Guess will vigorously defend our rights in every jurisdiction,” he said, without elaborating.
The case is the latest in a string of copyright battles in the industry. Luxury footwear label Christian Louboutin had its lawsuit against Yves Saint Laurent placed on hold in August last year. It had claimed that YSL infringed the 2008 copyright on his red-soled shoes by introducing red soles to its own footwear line.
No comments yet