Gucci Sue Guess Trademark Infringement Lawsuit Double G Dispute Dramatic Reversal

Regarding the ownership of the letter G, the struggle between Gucci and Guess has a long history. Although Gucci has sued Guess for winning the case in the United States, the lawsuit in Milan has undergone dramatic changes. Milan court sentenced Gucci to prosecute Guess trademark infringement case.

According to the appellate verdict and whether it will continue to appeal, the daily economic news reporter immediately contacted Gucci (China) Trading Co., Ltd., the public relations manager of the company said that it was not known for a while, and had to be confirmed to headquarters. However, the company did not receive the reply until the press release.

　　 Gucci diamond G letters are cancelled.

In 2009, Gucci filed a complaint against Guess trademark infringement in New York, Milan, Paris and Nanjing. In May 2012, the federal court of Manhattan sentenced Guess to pay Gucci466 million dollars, and Gucci won the first battle. The court also sentenced Guess to permanent use of the rhomboid "G" letter trademark, green red and green stripe logo and other "G" letter marks of Gucci.

Because of the different cognition and judgement of intellectual property cases, Gucci did not succeed in Milan court.

According to media reports, Guess said in a statement that the 83 page ruling of the Milan court rejected all claims made by the Florence company's GuccioGucciSpA under the Gucci brand. Meanwhile, the Milan court cancelled the registered trademark of the Gucci rhombus "G" letter LOGO and Flora, including 3 Italy registered trademarks and 4 EU registered trademarks.

"There are two main reasons for the difference between the verdict and the result of the judgment in the United States. First of all, the laws applied in two countries are not the same. Secondly, different courts and different judicial personnel will have different definitions and judgments on the trademarks, or even some deviations." Senior legal personage Zhao Zhanling expresses this.

PaulMarciano, chief executive of Guess, said Gucci has been using the group's powerful resources to prevent the development of Guess accessories business, which PaulMarciano believes is "fundamentally wrong and unreasonable". He also said that litigation between the two sides was unnecessary. "A simple phone call is easy to solve, and Gucci has never done so." Guess also quoted the Milan court's decision in the statement that the "Guess famous trademark" does not have the possibility of confusion.

In this regard, Xue Shengwen, a senior researcher at CIC, said that Gucci insisted that appeals are legitimate means to safeguard their rights and interests. The value of Logo is an important part of the price of luxury goods. However, the similarity between Guess's Logo and Gucci is high, which confuses consumers and weakens the potential revenue of Gucci. The contradiction between Gucci and Guess can never be solved because it is difficult for the fashion industry to define the scope of infringement.

However, there are many similarities between the trademarks of Gucci and Guess. Xue Shengwen believes that this is enough to confuse most consumers.

Xue Shengwen said that although the legal system of the United States and the European Union is roughly the same, but there are also minor differences. The success of Gucci and Guess depends largely on the countries in which they are tried.

　　 Does Guess have free riding?

In the industry view, the loss of Gucci will make the contradiction between the brand and Guess continue to deepen, and the success of Guess has not yet brought the brand recognition. According to relevant media reports, Gucci said, "there will be no doubt that it will appeal".

Zhou Ting, President of the luxury goods expert and the Institute of wealth and quality research, looks at the overall sense and style of the Guess brand as well as Gucci. In addition, the price of Guess is lower than that of Gucci, and its brand image is fashionable. It is welcomed by young fashion groups including emerging market countries.

According to Zhou Ting, the brand value is going downhill due to the fact that Gucci itself has been badly copied. This is also one of the reasons why Gucci insists on applying Guess to the law. Gucci is obviously aware of the brand crisis.

"In order to reduce competitors and aggressors in its field, LV usually adopts direct acquisition of fashion brands. For Gucci, Gucci can seek intellectual property protection. If there is no way to effectively intercept this channel, the best way is to acquire the brand of infringement, or cooperate with the infringed brand. Zhou Ting added further.

　　 Fashion products are hard to avoid.

The luxury brand has always demonstrated its brand personality through creativity, but in the process of development, it will inevitably encounter various situations, such as trademark similarity, product similarity or malicious Shanzhai.

To avoid other brand infringement, Zhao Zhanling put forward two ways in trademark: first, advance defense. It is a strategy adopted by many brands to register a series of similar defensive trademarks (which are applicable in foreign countries) in order to prevent competitors from using their trademarks after they are used. This is a strategy adopted by many brands, followed by defenses afterwards. Trademarks registered successfully can be dealt with by similar means or similar trademark infringement by various means, including administrative means, civil means or criminal means.

In preventing the similarity of products, Tao Jingzhou, an executive partner in Asia and a senior international M & A and arbitration lawyer, said that although luxury brands do not sell, they can continuously introduce new products to prevent them through innovative designs.

Tao Jingzhou further said that in fact, when compared with luxury brands in products, fashion brands will also have legal concerns. There have been many similar cases, such as whether malicious imitation and imitation itself are enough to cause consumers' confusion. Once consumers are confused, they can ask the other party to stop infringement. However, because of the high legal cost and low judicial efficiency, it is not uncommon for fashion brands to take risks.