Christian Louboutin’s Never Ending Quest to Protect the Red Sole: CL v Zara

342 days ago - The Fashion Lawyer : 2 Comments

Christian Louboutin’s  (CL) red sole is visible on the feet of most women. You can spot them a mile away, which adds to their allure. Red according to CL is the colour of love. This colour he has been trying to protect for a while now in the case: CL v YSL, where the two luxury giants are fighting over whether a colour can be trademarked. YSL is of the view that CL’s trademark is not valid and colour in fashion should not be reserved for one person’s use. Of course, CL is of the opposite view. We are still awaiting the outcome of this case.

Zara's version of Christian Louboutin's Yo-Yo slingback

As if it hasn’t been a bad enough year, new verdict from a French court adds insult to the injury. CL sued Zara for allegedly copying its Yo-Yo slingback. The Zara version of the shoe also has a red sole. Zara is of the view that no confusion would be created in the market place, because CL’s Yo-Yo shoe sells for around £395, while its version goes for a mere £40. Obviously, they are targeting two different customers. The French Cour de Cessation held that Zara’s cheaper version would not cause confusion in the market place, and sentenced CL to pay Zara £2,000 as compensation.

This new verdict is a major blow for CL, because France provides one of the highest protections against counterfeit and knock-offs. In fact, they recently embarked on a campaign against counterfeit goods.

France launches an anti-counterfeit campaign

France understands the importance of intellectual property in fashion. The fact that France did not agree with CL is very telling. Perhaps, the time has come for CL to accept defeat in this arena. One thing the court pointed out that is very important, is that the target customers for CL and Zara are different. I wonder therefore if the outcome would have been different if Zara was also a luxury brand targeting high-end customers. Would there be a confusion then? To me it appears so.

What do you think?

From your legal fashionista,

 Rock It!
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  • Hotelgulf718

    I believe in the protection of creative license and support all of it’s protection in the form of copyrights, patents, etc.
    Christian Louboutin is a world wide celebrity, eclipsing even Mr. Blahnik. Both make amazing shoes. It’s a plus that at this place in time, one can choose between these two houses along with several others, ie: Tom Ford, Diego Dolcini, Pierre Hardy, Alain Tondowski, Prada.
    In the case of the red soles being a copyrighted design, I have to say Mr. Louboutin is not the first with the bright red color placement. If one was to pick up a pump from the 1977 collection of Charles Jourdan, one will see a red sole, among one or two other colors. The pump is “AMELIA” on the “Lydie” construction. They came in a variety of colors, the purple came with red soles along with a couple of other styles on this construction.

    If anyone has intellectual creative protection, it should be Charles Jourdan. It may even be possible that Mr. Louboutin may been the author of the red soles at CJ,as he was a designer there at one time.

    Kind Regards,
    CharlesJourdanShrine

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