Louis Vuitton Malletier S.A. v. Haute Diggity Dog, LLC, 2006 WL 3182468 (E.D. Va. Nov. 3, 2006)

Pamela Reeder is the founder of Haute Diggity Dog which is dedicated to making fun of our globalized disease of affluenza while making some of her mortgage payment. Her company is self described as a “parody, plush, pet toy company” and the images of her products are depicted below, including “Sniffany & Co,” “Chewnell No. 5″ and “Chewy Vuiton.”

When Louis Vuitton filed a trademark and dilution action in Virginia against the parodist, the court lost no time in ruling in favor of Haute Diggity Dog, saying:

“This dog of a case gave the court a great amount of facts to chew upon and applicable law to sniff out. Nonetheless, having thoroughly gnawed through the record, this Court finds that no material dispute of the fact remain.”

and:

“The name “Chewy Vuiton” is, like “Timmy Holedigger,” an obvious parody of a famous brand name. The fact that the real Vuitton name, marks, and dress are strong and recognizable makes it unlikely that a parody-particularly one involving a pet chew toy and bed–will be confused with the real product.”

Vuitton also claimed copyright infringement. Why not just trademark infringement? Because, in 2002, Vuitton collaborated with Japanese pop artist Takashi Murakami to re-invent Vuitton’s signature gold and brown monogram design. What resulted was a multicolor monogram design and a line of handbags and accessories that inspired a cult-like following. It seems that Murakami filed a copyright application for his design in 2002. On-line Copyright Office records list Vuitton as claimant and the work as “work made for hire.”

The opinion raised the question of ownership of the copyright but concluded that the issue was irrelevant because defendant’s use of the copyrighted work was fair use, specifically a parody.

It is interesting to note that the court analyzed whether “Chewy Vuitton” and the “CL” monogram constituted copyright fair use, even though LOUIS VUITTON and the VL monogram are really trademarks, not copyrights. The issue should have been instead whether defendant’s overall design and arrangement of colors constituted fair use of the Murakami copyrighted design.

This entry was posted by Kate Spelman on Sunday, November 12th, 2006 at 11:21 am and is filed under Trademarks, Copyrights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.