Denim legend Levi Strauss has sued the American branch of Yves Saint Laurent (YSL) alleging trademark infringement, over the inclusion of tabs on jean pockets.
Levi’s “little red, or white, or blue tab that bears the company’s name and is stitched into the right seam of the back pocket” is undoubtedly an iconic symbol of the brand — it has been around since 1936 — but whether YSL’s use of a similar tab rises to the level of trademark infringement is questionable.
In order to prevail on a trademark infringement claim, Levi Strauss would have to show that it is likely that consumers would be confused as to the source of the jeans. Levi’s maintains that it would cause confusion and also that consumers might assume a “relationship between YSL and Levi’s.”
Specifically, Levi’s alleges that YSL is not only profiting from the sales of the jeans in question but also “causing incalculable and irreparable damage to Levi’s goodwill and diluting the capacity of its tab trademark to differentiation Levi’s products from others.” Moreover, Levi’s alleges that YSL is doing all of this with “willfulness, wantonness, malice, and conscious indifference to the rights and welfares of [Levi’s].”
Levi’s is requesting that the Northern District of California issue an injunction to stop YSL from making and selling the apparel in question as well as triple damages because of the allegedly willful nature of the infringement.
The complaint includes images of the jean tabs in question; basically what the two have in common is that they are both tabs. Does Levi’s really own a trademark on all tabs on all jeans? And even when a company such as YSL operates in a different market and charges several hundreds of dollars for a pair of jeans Levi’s cost markedly less? Meh.
Some critics in legal circles have called Levi's as a "trademark bully" thanks to the many lawsuits the company has brought against alleged infringers of the "Tab Device Trademark," including the one filed in June against British luxury brand Barbour. This criticism brings to mind similar thoughts about how the NFL aggressively defends its trademarks, especially around Super Bowl time.
With millions of dollars in revenue potentially at stake because of little tabs on jeans, though, it’s hardly surprising that Levi’s would at least want to send a message to other companies to carefully consider this aspect of jean design before putting their products into the marketplace.
