Fordham Law School Professor Susan Scafidi spoke with Stylecaster about New Balance’s lawsuit of Karl Lagerfeld.
“A logo is a walk in the park. Trying to establish ownership of a design is more like climbing Mount Everest. A logo, a name, a symbol that you use on every item of clothing or every accessory is registered with the trademark registration office and just as long as it doesn’t look too closely like everyone else, it’s a pretty simple process … Trying to own the actual design of a bag or a dress means having to prove to the trademark office secondary meaning. That means that you have to show that when a consumer looks at that bag—say it’s a Birkin—and automatically say, ‘Oh! That’s a Birkin.’”
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