Barack Ferrazzano Kirschbaum & Nagelberg served as primary counsel to Paris-based Louis Vuitton in a hotly contested trademark lawsuit filed by New York-based LVL XIII Brands and its founder Antonio Brown in July 2014. In the suit, LVL XIII accused the luxury brand of selling footwear "confusingly similar" to its own and using LVL XIII's "distinctive rectangular metal plate [in] the front of the shoe toe" on Louis Vuitton's On the Road sneaker from its Spring/Summer 2014 menswear collection.
In a recent decision, Judge Paul A. Engelmayer of New York's Southern District Court held that LVL XIII had failed to prove its case and establish its claims for trademark infringement, unfair competition and false designation of origin under the Lanham Act. The court found that not only did LVL XIII fail to show its toe plate design had secondary meaning in the minds of consumers, but they also could not establish a likelihood of confusion since the toe plates in question were "sufficiently dissimilar."
Barack Ferrazzano's legal team was led by Robert E. Shapiro and Intellectual Property Group Chair Wendi E. Sloane, alongwith Shermin Kruse, Sharon E. Calhoun, Hannah Jurowicz and paralegal Maureen Harmon.
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