Intellectual Property Law
Louis Vuitton Wins Hummer-Dinger Suit, Ruffed Up by Parody Ruling
Posted Nov 20, 2007, 12:17 pm CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Music lost and humor won in two recent rulings in lawsuits filed by Louis Vuitton.
The luxury goods maker succeeded in getting a Britney Spears video showing Vuitton-like fabric pulled from the Internet but lost an infringement suit against "Chewy Vuiton" dog toys.
Spears’ “Do Somethin' ” video features a pink Hummer with a dashboard upholstered in pink fabric that appears to be Vuitton's "Cherry Blossoms" design. A Paris civil court said last week that Sony BMG and MTV Online had violated counterfeiting laws by broadcasting the video, the Associated Press reports. It ordered the companies to stop broadcasting or marketing the video.
The maker of "Chewy Vuiton" dog toys won its case in an appeal decided last week by the Richmond, Va.-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Associated Press reports in a separate story. The court said in its Nov. 13 opinion (PDF) that the toys by Haute Diggity Dog are protected as a parody.
The Nevada company also makes other pet toys and beds that parody other high-end products. They include Chewnel No. 5, Dog Perignonn and Sniffany & Co.
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Posted by Blogonaut - 1 year, 1 week, 5 days, 6 hours, 14 minutes ago
We watched the offending video—if you blink you will miss the nanosecond shot of the dashboard on the Hummer bearing the LV signature fabric. LV should consider this free (subliminal) advertising.