Levis Levi's company sued for copyright infringement

The famous American jeans manufacturer Levi's recently filed a lawsuit against a competitor on the grounds that the defendant copied his signature jeans and designed it.

Since 2001, Levi's company has filed nearly 100 infringement lawsuits. This dimension has far exceeded the power of General Motors, Disney, Nike and others. No wonder the New York Times published a message saying that Levi's has transformed himself from the "garment of the fashion industry" into an "infringement litigation expert."

Levi's colleagues yelled that their design was far behind Levi's. Levi's simply wanted to take advantage of litigation cases to save the company's performance.

"Too much like it, tell them"

The two bags on the back pocket intersect and the left one is labelled vertically. This is the sign design of Levi's jeans. However, Levi's often finds that similar signs are now appearing heavily in the back pockets of other brands of jeans. What makes Levi's company unacceptable is that the jeans of these brands are several times or even ten times more expensive than themselves. Robert Hansen, president of Levi's North America Region, said: "The products we designed have been copied by many companies, and these companies have obtained many benefits through plagiarism."

In search of evidence of infringement, Levi's launched a "carpet-style" search operation. Levi's set up a 40-man “back pocket detective” and wandered around major clothing stores and supermarkets around the world. The companies accused by Levi's include Guess, Esprit, and other well-known brands, as well as some unknown apparel industry pawns.

Von Dutch was sued by Levi's six months ago. Tony Sorenson, CEO of the company, said that their jeans' back pocket design is “completely different” from Levi’s because the two arcs are “one inch to the left”. However, such a slight difference is obviously not enough to let Levys stop.

Some companies have tried hard to avoid Levi's design, but they still can't escape. Rock&Republic, one of the fastest-growing cowboy clothing companies in the United States, apparently intended to sewn the label strip to the right of the back pocket instead of sewing to the left like Levi's. But this also did not get rid of the lawsuit, Levi's company thinks that sewing the label of the vertical strip on the back pocket is its unique design.

The Jellessy Jeans Company was sued in 2005 because of a number of intersecting arcs in the back pocket of a pair of jeans. Company founder Stephen Shaul always wears Levi's jeans. "In the first two days of my prosecution, I couldn't sleep well," Saule said. "Then I called many of my colleagues and found out that many people had received a complaint from Levi's."

Hansen, president of Levi's North America, said that Levi's competitors should not rely on Levi's “first-in-first-out” fashion design, but should instead find a way to “at least add more creativity”.

Founded in 1873, Levi's Jeans is a pioneer in the world of cowboy fashion. Its multiple jeans have become a classic in the world of fashion. Levi's iconic back pocket design was first used 133 years ago. Interestingly, Levi's official website described the company’s characteristics as describing his jeans as "the most imitated clothing products."

"Unlucky to withdraw merchandise"

In the face of the aggressive Levi's company, the defendants mostly stayed quiet and reconciled. Levi's also admitted that he did not go for money, for example, a lawsuit ended with only $ 5,000 compensation. Levi’s request is for the other party to stop selling all “infringing” goods. It is not difficult to accept such a request.

Von Dutch finally agreed to remove hundreds of allegedly "plagiarized" jeans from dozens of specialty stores and destroy them. "These are just one of the many styles of our company's products and they may not be successful," said Sorenson, CEO of Von Dutch. "So we chose not to argue."

A few weeks ago, Rock&Republic reached a settlement with the Levis company representatives after five hours of intense controversy and agreed to no longer produce vertical-stitched jeans in the back pocket within two years. However, Rock & Republic Chief Executive Michael Baller strongly condemned the aggressive attitude of Levi's lawyers. “I personally think that Levi's is trying to control our design,” said Bale. “Our design is not like Levi's. I finally gave in because I have grown tired of this design.”

Jellessy Jeans promised to be quite straightforward. Company founder Shauler said: "I didn't even ask the lawyer."

Many of Levi's competitors admit that most of the design inspiration for "plagiarized" jeans really comes from Levi's. However, they believe that this is not infringement, but adapting to the trend. "Everyone is learning from Levi's, which is inevitable," said Michael Silver, the founder of Silver Cowboys, who was also involved in the lawsuit. "Levis should be happy about this."

Levi's obviously does not accept such "compliments." "If the market is full of products that are similar to our designs and sewing styles, our brand value will be reduced," said Thomas Wonda, a Levi's lawyer. So far, Levi's point of view seems to have the upper hand.

In fact, with the increasingly fierce competition, lawsuits related to design infringement in the apparel industry have never stopped for decades. The "Crocodile" company once defended his exclusive rights to the crocodile logo. Ralph Lauren apparel company had firmly protected its "polo player" logo. Nike often attacked its "hook" everywhere. The earliest in the 1970s had accused a company of stealing its design.

The focus of debate in these cases tends to focus on whether similar designs are "completely plagiarized" or merely "triggered", but the boundary between the two is really too vague. The complexity of the case is also that as long as a new garment design is introduced, it will be displayed in a showcase. This has led to no secret in the field of fashion design. Latecomers only need to change the details to get a share of the fashion trend.