In June, Forever 21 filed a lawsuit against Gucci over the trademark of stripes. Now, Gucci is fighting back in court.
On Tuesday, the Italian luxury label made two filings against the L.A.-based fast fashion retailer in California federal court. The first is a motion to “dismiss the spurious claims that Forever 21 lodged on June 26, 2017,” and the second is a counterclaim against Forever 21 for “willful trademark infringement, trademark dilution and unfair competition.”
“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,” reads a statement from Gucci.
The luxury brand maintains its stripe combinations have been “iconic codes” of the fashion house for more than 50 years, with the blue-red-blue iteration introduced in 1951 and the green-red-green in 1963. According to Gucci, the first U.S. trademark registration of the webbing dates back to 1979.
Forever 21 filed a suit to seek protection against the trademark of the alternating blue-red-blue and green-red-green stripes after it received multiple cease-and-desist letters from Gucci’s legal team. The letters demanded Forever 21 discontinue the use of those stripe combinations on its clothes and accessories, which included a choker necklace, satin bomber jacket, tiger embroidered striped sweater, metallic faux-leather bomber and floral bomber jacket.
Forever 21 has asked the court to green light its own use of the colored stripes, cancel Gucci’s current stripe trademarks and deny similar pending applications.
“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,” Gucci’s statement continues.
“Gucci considers the defense and enforcement of its celebrated trademarks of paramount importance in protecting its customers from those who wish to knowingly profit from deception and confusion.”
