November 20,2018:

Copyright infringement dispute between American fashion retailer Forever 21 and Germany based multinational footwear and sports accessories company Puma has been finally settled with the mutual consent of both the brands.

Both the parties filed for dismissal stating that they have agreed on a settlement in the US District Court for the Central District of California on November 7, 2018.

The conflict was primarily initiated in the month of March 2017 when Puma sued Forever 21 over copyright, design patent and trade dress infringement related to several of Fenty’s Well Known shoe styles including the bow slide, the faux-fur slide and the Creeper. In the suit, Puma claimed that The Creeper is patented under US design patent number D774288 and the Fenty shoes are also protected from infringement. Nevertheless, the judgement was not in favour of Puma in June 2017.

In 2018, Forever 21 filed a motion in the court asking for dismissal of Puma’s patent claim as the shoe design is influenced from the 1940s. It had also claimed that Puma had done fraud in the filing with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and Copyright Office and said, “Although Puma publicly advertises that Rihanna herself designed the shoes at-issue in this litigation, Rihanna is not named as an author on Puma’s copyright applications or as an inventor on Puma’s design patent.”

The Court has still not responded to the dismissal motion filed by the two parties but if it does both companies would be liable to pay their own legal fees and Puma would no longer be allowed to sue Forever 21 for the questionable shoe designs.

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