Deadline looms in Louis Vuitton toe plate case

Time is running out for Louis Vuitton to respond to a trademark infringement case filed against it by US shoe designer Antonio Brown.

The luxury fashion brand has until Thursday (August 21) to respond to an action launched at the US District Court for the Southern District of New York earlier this year by Brown and his label LVL XIII (pronounced ‘level 13’).

LVL XIII accused Louis Vuitton of infringing its trademarks and trade dress by applying metal nameplates to the toes of the footwear in the On the Road fashion line.

Brown’s company holds one registered trademark claiming the word mark ‘LVL XIII’. It has pending registrations for two marks covering the rectangular metal plates across the shoe toe and heel with the wording ‘LVL XIII’ engraved on them.

According to newspaper NYDailyNews.com, the plaintiff argued that the nameplates were “inherently distinctive” and since their launch in early 2013 have become associated with the LVL XIII brand.

News site The Fashion Law said that LVL XIII claims it was the first to use the “distinctive rectangular metal plate [that adorns] the front of the shoe toe”, and that the feature has become distinctive in the market.

LVL XIII accused Louis Vuitton of competing “unfairly” with the LVL XIII range of footwear from February 2014, by “selling footwear using trade dress that is confusingly similar to the LVL XIII toe plate and which impinges on the goodwill in it”.

In the complaint, it added that Louis Vuitton’s shoes are a “deliberate attempt to divert sales away from LVL XIII”.

Neither LVL XIII nor Louis Vuitton immediately responded to requests for comment.