Professor Susan Scafidi, founder and academic director of Fordham Law School’s Fashion Law Institute, provided legal background for a Billboard article on the rights to the famous pop culture smiley face logo.
In January, Justin Bieber launched his fashion label, Drew House, with a round of unisex hoodies, baggy shorts and tees emblazoned with a modified version of the smiley: two dots, a yellow circle and a mouth constructed from the word “Drew.” At Alexander Wang’s fall 2019 show, which celebrated the American hustle, there were topcoats with smileys by contemporary graffiti artist KATSU. During menswear week in Paris, diamond-encrusted smiley designs by Japanese fine jewelry brand EyeFunny were a surprise standout that J Balvin and Dior menswear creative director Kim Jones bought into. Meanwhile, Nirvana hit Marc Jacobs with a yet-to-be-resolved copyright infringement lawsuit for his reinterpretation of Kurt Cobain’s smiley, which Jacobs incorporated into his nostalgic Redux Grunge Collection.
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Despite the many legal claims to the symbol — most famously, Walmart’s decadelong action against Belgium-based The Smiley Co., which owns the rights to the logo in 80 countries, generating $265 million annually — “the Drew House version [is]a distinctive entry in a cluttered landscape, so I doubt that any of the other claimants will bare their teeth at it,” says Susan Scafidi, founder/director of the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham Law School.
