THE DAILY BLADE: Shoe Suit Shooed
In April Christian Louboutin filed a $1 million suit against Yves Saint Laurent for stepping on his red-soled shoes, alleging trademark infringement, unfair competition and false designation of origin. Southern District Judge Victor Marrero put his foot down and refused to grant a preliminary injunction to prevent Yves Saint Laurent from selling shoes with a red sole on the grounds that “a color, being an essential element of fashion design, could not be trademarked, even though the red outsole was strongly associated with Louboutin shoes in the public mind,” New York Law Journal reports:
Louboutin … alleg[ed] that several of its rival's shoes infringed Louboutin's 2008 trademark on women's shoes with a red outsole, in violation of the Lanham Act. Louboutin has identified its particular shade as "Chinese red," but argued that any confusingly similar shade would infringe the trademark. YSL's allegedly infringing shoes are monochrome, entirely red, including their outsoles.
Further, Marrero dug his heels in and ruled that if YSL moved for summary judgment that Louboutin's trademark is invalid, he would grant it. Louboutin suing for the exclusive right to use the color red, writes Marrero, would be akin to Pablo Picasso suing Claude Monet over a single color:
In his complaint, Picasso alleges that Monet, in depicting the color of water, used a distinctive indigo that Picasso claims was the same or too close to the exquisite shade that Picasso declares is 'the color of melancholy,' the hallmark of his Blue Period, and is the one Picasso applied in his images of water in paintings of that collection. By virtue of his longstanding prior use of that unique tinge of blue in context, affirmed by its registration by the trademark office, Picasso asserts exclusive ownership of the specific tone to portray that color of water in canvas painting. Should a court grant Picasso relief?
BTW, Louboutin's shoes have sported red soles since 1992, but Valentino beat him to it and was making shoes with red soles in 1969.
While we’re on the subject of footwear, presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) didn’t seem to be suffering any shoe-related migraines when she stomped all over former Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) during last week’s Republican debate in Ames, IA (“[W]hen you were governor … you implemented cap and trade … You praised the unconstitutional individual mandates and called for requiring all people in our state to purchase health insurance … [Y]ou said the era of small government was over. That sounds more like Barack Obama, if you ask me.”). She then sashayed her way to victory in the GOP Ames Straw Poll two days later with more than twice the number of votes that Pawlenty got (4,823 vs. 2,293). Her shoes are still pointed towards the White House, his are slinking back to MN.
That Was Then, This Is Now
I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!
- Barry Goldwater, The Conscience of A Conservative, 1960
I make no apologies for being reasonable.
- President Barack Hussein Obama, stump speech in Decorah IA, August 16, 2011
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