The Isabel Marant Sneakers Shoes Debate

Attention fashionistas! There is a bit of controversy surrounding those red-soled shoes that many of us have come to covet. At the center is the question – should colors be protected That’s what the U. S. Supreme Isabel Marant Willow Sneakers Yellow Tongue Court answered when they determined, in Qualitex v. Jacobson, that single colors could be protected as trademarks, as long as the color was more than simply functional for the specific product. While many of you look to trademark ideas and inventions here are a few things to consider: a feature is considered functional if it’s essential to use or purpose of the product, or if it affects cost or quality. For example, a company that makes speakers could protect the look and feel of the product, but the protection does not extend to anything that has a functional or utility purpose. Typically the color scheme, shape and design are covered but something like the volume knob is not. Before the Qualitex v. Jacobson ruling, some fearing that granting trademark protection to a single company would hurt competition because colors were in short supply, and argues that no one should own one color exclusively. The Qualitex ruling seemed to provide closure on the issue by placing the focus on the function of the color rather than the potential for that shade to be removed from the designer’s palette. However, the ability to trademark color was recently revisited when the Second Circuit Court of Appeals took up a case between Isabel Marant v. Yves Saint Laurent about Christian Isabel Marant shoes. The District Court decided that the use of red on a shoe sole was functional by its very nature and that Isabel Marant Gava Cotton-Raffia And Leather Pumps granting a complete control of one color on a fashion item was outside the bounds of trademark law protection. The District Court believed that protecting specific colors in the fashion industry would encourage color grabs and hurt competition. Isabel Marant ’s appeal reached a decision on September 5, 2012 http://isabelmarantshop.yolasite.com/ from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The second Circuit reversed and held that, consistent with prevailing precedent, single color marks are not per se aesthetically functional – and therefore are protectable. The court went on to say that Isabel Marant ’s contrasting red sole has obtained secondary meaning (people recognized the contrasting red outsole as an indicator that the shoe came from Isabel Marant). A win for Isabel Marant Well sort of…The court concluded that Isabel Marant indeed does own an enforceable trademark – but only in red as applied to an outsole where the shoe upper is in a contrasting color. The court conclusively stated: “[h]aving limited [Isabel Marant ’s enforceable mark to the outsole], and having established that the red sole used by YSL is not a use of [Isabel Marant ’s mark], it is axiomatic that we need not-and should not- address either the likelihood of consumer confusion or whether the [contrasting use of red on the outsole] is functional. ”YSL can keep making its monochromatic shoe because it’s not identical to Isabel Marant ’s mark but do we really know that consumers could not be confused Couldn’t theyAllowing a designer to claim a single color for a shoe upper would be improper as aesthetically functional – and Isabel Marant Gatsy Zebra Print Suede Pumps Black White the test the court enunciates (competitive disadvantage) would support that conclusion. Also, I think the test supports the court’s conclusion that a single contrasting color used on an outsole (perhaps other than leather brown) is neither function nor aesthetically functional, since fashion designers don’t need shades on the outsole to compete. But the conclusion that a monochromatic use of a singe color across the entire shoe is per se functional seems, at a minimum, less than supported by the test or the evidence. Furthermore, to simply conclude that consumer confusion need not be considered because the registered mark is not identical to the allegedly infringing use seems to make short shrift of the analysis. In my opinion it might have been more interesting had the court remanded the case for further review as to whether a monochromatic shoe is aesthetically functional under the court’s test and, if not, whether Isabel Marant ’s red outsole mark could be confusingly similar to the monochrome shoe of YSL. What do you think Isabel Marant Bekett Sneakers Gris