Back in March, we wrote about Louis Vuitton's attempt to
sue artist Nadia Plesner for her painting that included what was supposed to be a child from Darfur holding a designer purse:
This was the second time LV dealt with this issue. A few years earlier, it had
sued Plesner over the same character holding the same purse (which, we should note, does not copy LV's logo directly) which was on t-shirts that Plesner was selling to help raise money for the victims in Darfur. We found the entire thing to be beyond distasteful by LV. This clearly was not trademark infringement. It was just LV being a bully. Plesner had lost that original lawsuit, mainly because she just didn't fight it. The new lawsuit was about the painting above.
The good news, via
Ray Dowd is that
Plesner has prevailed as the court in the Hague found the painting
not to infringe on Louis Vuitton's trademark:
the importance of Plesner (freedom of expression through her work) outweighs the importance of Vuitton (protection of property). Using Plesner of the design is considered functional by the court and proportionate.
Not only that, but the court also ordered Louis Vuitton to
pay Plesner's legal fees. Excellent news all around. Hopefully it'll make LV and its lawyers think twice before bullying artists in the future.
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