Earlier this year, fashion brand Steven Madden, Ltd. filed a declaratory judgment action against Jasmin Larian, LLC in a trademark dispute involving the latter’s Cult Gaia “Ark” bag, a structured handbag made of interlocking rigid strips arranged in a half-moon shape. The dispute arose after Larian’s counsel had sent a cease and desist correspondence to Madden requesting that it cease and desist from the marketing and sale of Madden’s virtually identical “BShipper” bag. In its papers, Madden seeks a declaration that the “Ark” design is generic and not protectable because it “slavishly copies the traditional Japanese bamboo picnic bag design… from the 1940s.”
Last year, Forever 21, Inc. also filed a declaratory judgment action after its receipt of several cease and desist correspondences from Gucci America, Inc. In its letters, Gucci accused Forever 21 of selling products bearing Gucci’s blue-red-blue and green-red-green stripes for which it owns several trademarks for different categories of goods.
