Lucky Brand Dungarees filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Target Corp. in Manhattan federal court last Thursday. This is the second trade dress suit against the retailer in two weeks.
The Lucky lawsuit also named Maximum Exposure as a defendant. Target did not return calls seeking comment.
“Based on what we know today, we intend to fight this and defend ourselves,” said a spokesman for Maximum Exposure.
Lucky alleged that Target and Maximum Exposure “blatantly misappropriated Lucky Brand’s unique and original embroidered floral design and rear pocket stitch design for jeanswear and placed the same on their own competing line of jeanswear.”
According to the court documents, the allegedly infringing jeans are produced by Maximum Exposure and sold exclusively to Target. Lucky alleged that the placement, grouping, style and coloring of the floral design on the jeans sold at Target was “substantially similar” to the design of Lucky jeans.
Lucky discovered that Target was selling two lines of jeanswear for girls featuring a floral design and rear pocket stitch that were “virtually identical” to its own in March 2006. Lucky said it sent Target a cease and desist letter in March, but that the letter was ignored. According to the court documents, Target referred Lucky to Maximum Exposure and continued to sell the jeans in question.
The complaint includes allegations of copyright infringement, trademark infringement and unfair competition. Lucky asked the court to keep Target and Maximum Exposure from continuing to infringe on its jeans and to make Target deliver all the allegedly infringing goods for destruction. Lucky also asked for financial damages.
Lucky sells jeans and apparel in its own stand-alone stores and at chains such as Nordstrom, Lord & Taylor, Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s West.
Coach filed an unrelated trademark infringement lawsuit on Sept. 29 against Target, also in Manhattan federal court. The suit accused Target of selling a fake Coach bag in a Florida store. Target disputed the claim, and asserted that it has taken steps to ensure that its products are not counterfeit.
Industry observers have noted that there is growing friction between brand owners and large national retailers over intellectual property rights. Earlier this year, Coach sued Kohl’s for trademark infringement. Fendi filed a lawsuit against Wal-Mart for selling allegedly counterfeit bags at Sam’s Club. Anthropologie and U.O.D. Inc. sued Wal-Mart late last year for alleged copyright infringement and unfair competition. And L’Occitane sued Wal-Mart, CVS and Advanced Beauty Systems for trademark infringement last year.