Plagiarism in the fashion industry is a huge challenge and the advent of social media has made the term even easier and more popular. Every fashion season, designers get called out for plagiarizing other brands, in this case the big brands are called out more often than the small ones. It is quite shocking that just few weeks after Gucci was called out for out rightly copying Dapper Dan’s 1988 fur jacket with puffed out sleeves created from the Luis Vuitton monogram print for their 2018 resort collection, Gucci sues Forever 21 over plagiarism.
Ironic or not, Forever 21 has been sued 50 times in the past 27 years of its existence for plagiarism and they are yet to lose a single court case, in the last year alone they have been accused of ripping off Kanye West, Thrasher and Emily Oberg. To be realistic, Forever 21 isn’t the only fashion line that has been faced with a lawsuit, Zara and Ysl are also culprits of these acts.
In December 2016, Gucci sent several cease and desist letters to Forever 21, the essence of these letters was to get forever 21 to discontinue all items staring Gucci’s trademark “blue-red-blue” and “green-red-green” stripes. Obviously, Forever 21 did not heed to this letters, they continued the production of this items. Gucci still sent out these letters in January 2017 and February 2017.
Although Forever 21 has taken down the items from its websites, they had a couple of clothes that were similar to that of Gucci, for instance the bomber jackets, chokers and sweaters that had similar design to Gucci’s striped items. Gucci filed this lawsuit with two counterclaim suits within the U.S. District Court, Central District of California.
Fashionista reports that Forever 21 is now seeking legal protection against the threat. The fast fashion retailer filed a legal complaint on Monday. “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.” According to Fashionista, the counterclaims filed were for trademark infringement, trademark dilution, unfair competition, and the dismissal of the retailer’s earlier claims.
Highsnobiety reached out to Gucci and put out a statement saying “Gucci has today taken steps to finally put an end to U.S. mass retailer Forever 21’s blatant exploitation of Gucci’s famous and iconic blue-red-blue and green-red-green stripe webbing trademarks. In two filings today in the United States District Court, Central District of California, Gucci has asked the Court to dismiss the spurious claims that Forever 21 lodged on June 26, 2017, and has brought counterclaims against Forever 21 for willful trademark infringement, trademark dilution and unfair competition.
“Despite Forever 21’s attempt to use its lawsuit to intimidate Gucci into ceasing its trademark enforcement efforts, Gucci is as committed as ever to protecting its long established intellectual property rights, which are at the heart of the brand’s identity, and to ending once and for all Forever 21’s reprehensible exploitation of its distinctive trademarks and those of other brands who have suffered the same type of piracy.”
This Legal battle is not dying down anytime soon, lets keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best, In the mean time here is something you can do. CLICK HERE
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