Intellectual Property and Copyright Gucci
Gucci is a company running in fashion and leather goods field. They manufacture trend items such as bags, jewelries, watches, belts and shoes. They locate their headquarters in Florence, Italy, as where the brand was originally found. Going through a brief history of the company, it was found by an Italian-British immigrant hotelier in Paris who was fascinated by a luxurious luggage owned by one of the guests. The business started in 1921 and has expanded to become infamous in the early 19th century. Since then, Gucci is known to be one of the most prestigious brands in the fashion industry. Currently Gucci owns 520 retail stores worldwide.
Gucci is a subsidiary company which is owned by its parent organization, Kering. There are many more luxurious brands possessed by Kering. Some of them are Yves Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga and Bottega Veneta. One of the objectives of Gucci is maintaining the reputation, image and quality of the brand. The company is also serious regarding Corporate Social Responsibility. Some of the aspects that they promote through CSR are respect for human right, protection of environment and biodiversity, and valuing diversity in terms of gender, culture and disability.
Gucci Intellectual Properties
Trademark
Trademark is a mark or symbol that is legally protected to give a form of indication and relation between products or services and the rightful owner. What include as a trademark are device, brand, heading, label, ticket, name, signature, word, letter and numeral marks. A trademark is necessary to be distinctive, unique and not in general use of the public. The duration for a trademark to be protected under the law varies in different parts of the world, though mostly is ten years. A registration of trademark that possess identical or similar aspects to an existing trademark will be counted as infringement. There are some trademarks owned by the highlighted company, Gucci.
A few logos are considered in Gucci’s trademarks which includes the Quatro G and the stylized squared G. Other than that they also claimed that some patterns of their products are of their possession such as the green-red-green stripes mark and interlocking G patterns. As the company runs and became one of the biggest brand in the fashion industry, Gucci encountered disputes in regard to its trademarks and other intellectual properties. Some ended in benefit for Gucci and some did not. The infringement cases are to be elaborated on the next part of the report.
Copyright
The definition of copyright is a legal right given to a person or an organization possessing an original creation of literary, musical, artistic, sound recording, films, broadcast or derivative works with the intention of protection. The right is applicable within a period of time, where in different country the time frame differs. Usually it is a lifetime of the author plus specified additional years. An infringement to copyright can be done only if the second party with similar idea knows of the original property is owned by somebody else. In accordance to the company discussed in this report, Gucci, there are some copyrighted intellectual properties owned by it.
Gucci official website is a copyrighted property in which can be identified by finding the copyright mark ( © ) at the bottom of the web pages and it is regarded as the asset of Guccio Gucci. Other than that, example of the company’s copyrighted properties are their commercials as a form of publicity of their products or campaigns. They include Gucci Showtime: Spring summer 2019 campaign, Gucci Pret-A-Porter: The fall-winter 2019 campaign and Gucci Guilty campaign film. Gucci is a substantial brand, thus needs a strong form of protection toward its intellectual properties.
Infringement of Intellectual Properties
Gucci v Guess
The following discussion will invoke a trademark infringement occurrence with the same case reported in different countries. The cases are between company Gucci and a famous American brand running in clothing industry, Guess. Guess company headquarters is based in Los Angeles, United States. It markets fashion products such as clothing, watches, jewelries and shoes. Its revenue of 2.4 billion US dollar shows of how big the brand is, though not in parallel with Gucci with the revenue of 7.1 billion US dollar in 2017.
Gucci reported several trademark infringement cases by Guess in several countries which two of them are to be elaborated – in the United States and in Italy. Despite of the same period of report, both legal court executions brought different end results. Gucci won in the United States and gained a sum of damages from Guess, meanwhile in Milan, Italy, the court had favor for Guess and caused cancellation of few of Gucci’s potential trademark.
Gucci v Guess
Trademark is a mark used by one party, possessed as an identity or character and indication in accordance to the connection of products to related persons. The case took place in the United States in which the bills regarding to the occurrence are written in Trademark Act of 1946, as amended.
According to title 15 U.S.C section 1051, the registered trademarks have to be verified if it is in use for commerce, and it is ensured that no other party is able to use them for commercial purposes in identical or in resemblance form which can cause confusion or mistake. The validity of a trademark registration period in America lasts for ten years, in which then the filed matter needs to be renewed as long as it is still in use for commerce. Meanwhile, it is possible for a trademark registration to be cancelled if it is found that the trademark has not been used for three years.
The dispute started in 2009. This was the first time the two impressive brands battle each other, in which after this case there are few more occurrences between them in different parts of the world. This time, Gucci reported a complaint to the federal court in New York, stating that the Los-Angeles-based company has imitated five of their possessions. The aspects in question were as follows:
- 1. The well-known green-red-green stripe mark
- 2. The diamond repeating interlocking G pattern
- 3. Designer’s name script
- 4. The Quattro G pattern
- 5. The stylized squared G
The report was filed and Gucci demanded for a damage in total of 221 million US dollar. They claimed that Guess has counterfeited the trademarks with the intention of diverting of sales.
The dispute lasted for three years. In 2012, the final court decision pronounced a permanent injunction, limited damages and cancellation of the usage of the Quattro G pattern. Guess had to pay for 4.7 million US dollar out of the 221 million that Gucci requested. Few reasons supported the proclamation. First, it was found that Gucci has only protested about the matter after years of Guess’s establishment of the questioned aspects. Guess has started to produce the so called similar designs since 1995, and was just issued in 2009. Second, the judge disagreed with Gucci’s statement that Guess has counterfeited their possessions since it could only be said if Guess had indistinguishably copied the product.
Gucci v Guess
The report was filed in Milan, Italy simultaneously with the complaints filed in court of New York. The laws regarding trademark in Italy fall under the Code of Industrial Property, Law Decree No. 30 of 10 February 2005. Inside the bills, it is stated that a graphical representation in the form of visible signs such as shape, color and positions were able to be registered as trademark as long as it is not commonly used and brings up distinctive aspect to the brand or product.
Gucci listed the claims about Guess mimicking their products as how they had reported in the US. Gucci added that the action done by the rival company was unlawful and parasitic free-riding on Gucci’s trademark and its brand name. The list of infringement that they argued were none other than the interlocking G logo and the floral G pattern. This process of court occurred for four years, ending with a result of Guess as the holder of victory. The luxurious Italian brand found the similarities between both brands’ designs and claimed that Guess’ were a form of knock-off of Gucci’s high-class qualities.
Nevertheless, the court in Milan favored the American fashion company and had denied the claims declared by Gucci, supporting that none of the reports are a form of threat of infringement by Guess. This incident linked to other unfortunate decisions for Gucci. It caused cancellation of Gucci’s trademark in the area of Italy and some other European countries, including one of the trademarks that was reported by Gucci itself which was the stylized squared G logo. World-wide, Gucci and Guess stood up for their beliefs against each other for over nine years. Some of the countries involved are America, France, Italy, China and Australia in which each court came up with varied decisions. After almost ten years of dispute, the two massive companies reached their last court filing and made peace.
Gucci v Dapper Dan
The following discussion brings up another trademark infringement case that happened in United States, 1992. The case is between Gucci and a famous designer who made business in fashion industry out of using the names and logos of existing brands unlawfully, including Gucci. The case favored Gucci and brought remedies for the defendant. The relationship between the designer and Gucci has not been very well until recently for an incident happened and caused the two to cross path with each other once more since the early 1990s.
Daniel Day or known as Dapper Dan is an American designer, specifically from New York. He was well known for his creations around the years of 1980s, for he introduced a creative movement in the hip hop fashion industry. Day had quite a sorrowful past but then quit only to become a very innovative pioneer in the industry. One of his inventions was a way to allow leather cloth material to be printed, which made him famous. Another aspect that helped him grew was the black culture that he celebrated through his manufacture of clothing. His products were well-known and used by famous artists during the time. Some of them are Jay-Z, Salt-n-Peppa and L.L Cool.
To grow more of his works, Day tried to attract attention from big brands to have support and gain more notice from the mass public. Getting a low interest from the top fashion brands, Day ended up using branded logos such as Fendi, Louis Vuitton and Gucci without authorization for his clothing productions. He also relied on knockoff fabrics to produce his closets of outfits. Because of that, his glory lasted for around ten years until his business had to shut down after sued by the brands that he used illegally. The remedies that he got was not in the form of money, but he had to close down his rising business and stop any further production with regards to the usage of other companies’ logos.
The action done by Day was against law title 15 U.S.C section 1114 of Trademark Act of 1946, regarding remedies from infringement. Taking from the bill, it is stated that “Reproduce, counterfeit, copy or colorably imitate a registered mark and apply such reproduction, counterfeit, copy or colorable imitation to labels, signs, prints, packages, wrappers, receptacles or advertisements intended to be used in commerce upon or in connection with the sale, offering for sale, distribution, or advertising of goods or services on or in connection with which such use is likely to cause confusion, or to cause mistake, or to deceive, shall be liable in a civil action by the registrant for the remedies hereinafter provided.”
After the Case
Twenty-five years after the incident of the infringement, Gucci staged their collection show in Italy – the Cruise 2018 Fashion Show. One of the outfits was inspired by Renaissance street wear look as the theme was brought up by Alessandro Michele, Gucci’s creative director. Through all the collection present, there was one design which was a bomber jacket with balloon-like puffed sleeves that looked similar to one of Daniel Day’s designs. Many critics arose through social media, claiming that credits should be given to Day, although opposed by Gucci, saying that the design was a form of Gucci’s new Renaissance cruise 2018 fashion show and the idea was completely fresh to show different European eras. Despite of the rocky road relationship between the two, on February 2019 Dapper Dan collaborated with Gucci on his vintage hip hop-inspired capsule collection and the luxurious company made Day as the face of a special tailoring campaign, also built a new studio and atelier for Day.
Sharona Franklin v Gucci
This case discusses about a copyright infringement occurrence done by Gucci in 2019, which the case is still going on in the present. The case is between an artist, Sharona Franklin, and Gucci. Franklin runs her collection of arts through an Instagram account, @paid.technologies, that shows her artworks which are based in Vancouver, Canada. She uses gelatin as a medium to build the sculptures. The reason to that is because gelatin is an environmental-friendly material for she grew up with a nature environment surrounding that causes her to have more bio concern. She started creating art jelly as a form of her medication since she lives with more than twenty rare complex systemic diseases and attracted her interest to become an artist, writer and performer.
The infringement case incident started in May 2019, when Gucci contacted Franklin saying that they are interested in her works of sculpture and planned to work with her for one of the Italian brand’s future project. They continued to discuss further about the job through online and mobile communication. Eventually, Gucci asked her to sign a contract. Five weeks after they arranged and discussed about the project objectives, Gucci suddenly bailed and canceled the project claiming that there was an issue regarding the budget and there was no word coming from Gucci of how everything will go since then. Franklin even claimed that during the arrangement, neither Franklin nor Gucci has brought up and converse about the budget management.
In September 2019, Gucci released their Cruise 2020 campaign, only to use Franklin’s artwork that they agreed not to proceed with. Gucci plagiarized the jelly cake sculpture of Franklin’s and publicized it on behalf of their campaign property. Feeling deceived, Franklin went public about the incident that disheartened her, and Gucci tried to legally silence her but to no avail. The case is still on going and there has not been a movement involving court and filing of the infringement, but many online petitions are spread in order to support Franklin for her plagiarized artworks by Gucci.
Expansion of intellectual property
Collaboration with Guess
Gucci had numerous disputes with Guess in the past and has finally came to a composure after almost ten years. To show their reconciliation, Gucci and Guess can create a collaboration in the same industry, producing a brand-new branch business. The idea is mainly to declare their harmony to customers, and to create an exclusive yet trendy fashions as what the two businesses are known of. Gucci will provide the quality maintenance as well as the luxury touch to their products. Meanwhile, Guess can take over the comfortability and contemporary designs to provide comfort of the products and keep up with the latest fashion trends.
The business will surely attract many customers as both brands are world-wide infamous. With the presence of this expansion, many intellectual properties will be owned. They will be given the right to protect the name, logo and taglines as their trademark property. Meanwhile they will possess copyright of the website and the advertisements.
Publish Guccio Gucci biography film
As a ginormous company, there is a high chance that the mass public are interested in the history and the life story of Gucci’s founder, Guccio Gucci. A way in which it can be taken advantage of is by producing a biography film about the story behind the success of Gucci. It can be a form of encouragement and provide of morals to the watchers to have their own determination and will to succeed in any field in their lives. In the intellectual property manner, the films will be put under protection of copyright as films are one of the properties that can be registered for copyright.
