Fashion and functionality: what happened at the red sole hearing
25 January 2012
Eileen McDermott, New York
Shoe maker Christian Louboutin took his legal fight to save his red sole trade mark to a new level yesterday as judges in New York began hearing arguments in his dispute with rival designer Yves Saint Laurent
But the judges on the Second Circuit Court of Appeal seemed concerned by the lack of evidence available to them in the case, one attendee told Managing IP.
The three judges heard arguments from both sides on Tuesday afternoon in Louboutin’s appeal against Judge Victor Marrero’s refusal to grant it a preliminary injunction to stop Yves Saint Laurent infringing the up-market shoe designer’s trade mark for a lacquered red outsole.
Marrero in August found that the mark was likely to be proven invalid at trial.
Randy Lipsitz of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel attended the hearing, and said that the judges commented repeatedly on the lack of evidence in the dispute. "By the time a case gets to the appellate court they want to have a complete record," said Lipsitz.
Marrero did not hold an...
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