Ivanka Trump trade dress suit dropped
Luxury footwear brand Aquazzura has dropped trade dress infringement claims against Ivanka Trump, the daughter of the US president, and the dispute has now been withdrawn.
Italian shoemaker Aquazzura sued (pdf) Trump at the US District Court for the Southern District of New York in June last year, accusing her of copying the trade dress of the ‘ Wild Thing’ shoe.
The design of the ‘Wild Thing’ sandal, which consists of a fringed front strap, a self-tie ankle strap with tassel ends and a stiletto heel, was allegedly copied by Trump to make the ‘ Hattie’ sandal.
Trump and her company IT Collection partnered with co-defendants Marc Fisher and MB Fisher in 2010 to launch a footwear brand.
The design of ‘Hattie’ copied nearly every detail of the shoe “in a blatant attempt to trade off the renown”, said the claim.
Aquazzura also claimed that this wasn’t the first time the defendants had copied designs, saying it had previously complained about its ‘Belgravia’ and ‘Forever Marilyn’ line of shoes being copied.
In August last year, Trump filed a response which denied accusations that she had “engaged in any acts of infringement of plaintiff’s purported trade dress, unfair competition or deceptive trade practices”.
Marc Fisher counter claimed, alleging that Aquazurra didn’t have common law trade dress rights in the configuration of the ‘Wild Thing’ style shoe.
It also claimed that US design patent number D766,409, which was alleged to cover pompoms and tassels on the ‘Wild Thing’ shoe, was invalid or unenforceable.
On Friday, November 17, Aquazzura and Trump, along with the other defendants, agreed to the case being dropped (pdf) with prejudice after Aquazzura had asked for its claims to be dismissed.
Did you enjoy reading this story? Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.
Today’s top stories:
Four senior cases from last week and why they matter
Marques concerned over lack of Brexit IP negotiations
USITC launches Alibaba investigation
Intangible capital generated $5.9tn to manufactured products, says WIPO
