How vulnerable is your trademark when it comes to cross border litigation?


iulia@plus972group.com
How vulnerable is your trademark when it...

Gucci and Guess have been fighting court battles since 2009 over a simple “G”. In 2012, the New York court ruled in favor of Gucci and ruled that Guess was guilty of copying four of the five trademarked logos, the most significant being the repeating “GG” pattern, the stylized “G” design mark and the script Gucci designed mark.

The NY court decided in Gucci/s favor and awarded significantly low damages because the court felt that Gucci had knowledge of the similarity before and had chosen not to do anything about it and that it seemed more like Gucci’s logo had been diluted not imitated. In Italy the courts decided and ruled in Guess’s favor.

It is important to note that Guess and Gucci respectively represent their country’s band and the courts ruled against them, where a natural bias would have been reasonable to assume. Similar suits were filed in France, where the ruling was in Guess’s favor and China which ruled in favor of Gucci.

There is no fixed parameters what the court will find to be in violation of another’s trademark and will be decided on individual merit and the practice in local courts.

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