« Luxury Brand Naming on Ketchup? | Main | Why We Love Coining New Product Names From "Twitter" »

August 6, 2009

Greedy Guccis Barred from Using the Gucci Brand Name for Their Product Naming

A judge has barred Paolo Gucci's ex-wife and her daughter from using the Gucci brand name commercially in the United States without trademark approval.

Jennifer (the ex-wife) and Gemma Gucci (her 28 year old investment banker daughter) are attempting to offer coffee, cosmetics and "other goods" using their name and a very familiar looking green and red stripe.

The Gucci name, however, is owned by French luxury goods seller PPR and they have responded to this trademark transgression by suing both women and their licensing agent, Edward Litwak. Essentially, they are seeking damages for marketing products that were "confusingly similar" to the real thing.

The court has ruled that the duo "willfully infringed and diluted the Gucci trademarks." This means that Jennifer Gucci's planned bedding products, which would include the Gucci logo with "variations of the initials "JG" and a repeating diamond pattern with interlocking "GG" are going to disappear. Permanently.

But the ladies may be able to use the Gucci name on products not addressed in the suit if the Trademark office approves.

In the meantime, Gucci America is "entitled to an accounting of profits, attorneys' fees from all defendants and punitive damages" according to the Wall Street Journal.

This news comes to us just after a possible resolution of the Guess-Gucci conflict I wrote about earlier this year.

The good people over at Intellectual Property and Business Law blog lead us through the many reasons why this was a doomed little caper from the outset and cite "Polaroid Corp v. Polarad Elects. Corp, 287 F.2d 492 (2d Cir. 1961)" as the test case. Suffice to say that the defendants have acted in bad faith and sowed confusion in the marketplace.

But the real villain here could be the licensing agent, who just might have assured the two, erroneously, that they would not in fact be shut down by the courts.

No matter what happens, we can be pretty sure that Jennifer Gucci will not be using her maiden name, Puddefoot, to sell anything.

Technorati Tags: Jennifer Gucci, Gemma Gucci, Gucci Trademark, Trademark Infringement, Brand Licensing

Posted by William Lozito at August 6, 2009 8:05 AM
Posted to Brand Naming | Branding | Fashion | Industry | Licensing | Marketing | Naming | Naming Rights | Product Naming | Trademarking

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.namedevelopment.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/4473