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The Itsy-Bitsy, Teenie-Weenie, Very Litigious Bikini
- neuralRiot 8y agoUsing the brand is wrong but making a similar product? Isn't what she did in the first place?
- ada1981 8y agoRight. Appropriates a handmade native Brazilian bikini, has it made in China and makes $9MM. Sues others for making similar designs.
- magic_beans 8y agoThis is essentially the story of Supreme.
- hiccuphippo 8y agoOr the story of Disney.
- berbec 8y agoAs much as I think Disney is a bunch of over-sueing bastards, with one expecption I can think of [1], they use stuff in the public domain. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimba_the_White_Lion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimba_the_White_Lion
- quadrangle 8y agoAlso, to be fair, Disney does a lot of real creativity with the public domain stories they adapt. They aren't just copies.
- humanrebar 8y agoThe originals don't have enough merchandising tie ins.
- sincerely 8y agoDoes supreme sue people for anything besides using their logo??
- simplecomplex 8y agoEven their logo makes no sense as a trade mark. Supreme is a common noun, and uses one of the most common typefaces, Helvetica, on a solid red background. There’s no unique aspect to their logo at all. Maybe I should start a company named The. Start suing any product line prefixed with “The”
- alasdair_ 8y ago>Supreme is a common noun, and uses one of the most common typefaces, Helvetica, on a solid red background. It's an italic version of (or very similar to) "Futura bold oblique" and it was used in white on a red background by the artist Barbara Kruger as (massive irony here) a critique of consumerism. Supreme then took that influence to create their logo.
- monadgonad 8y ago> Supreme is a common noun, and uses one of the most common typefaces, Helvetica, on a solid red background. There’s no unique aspect to their logo at all. So? Together they make a recognisable brand. That's what matters. > Maybe I should start a company named The. Start suing any product line prefixed with “The” You can't sue "any product line", only ones in the same sector which could be confused with yours. McDonald's can't sue a car mechanic called McDonald's. Good luck making "The" a recognisable brand in any sector.
- cwkoss 8y agoVery disappointing. Irgit shouldn't have won a single suit: fashion design is not copyrightable. Courts overreached here, especially as Irgit purchased this design and did not make it herself.
- Deimorz 8y agoThe bikini style is probably unique enough that it could be considered "trade dress", which is protected by IP law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_dress https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_dress The article mentions trade dress being an aspect of their lawsuit against Neiman Marcus and some other companies.
- devin 8y agoThat still seems like a reach to me. IANAE, but it's hard to imagine someone calling a neon green polyester suit "trade dress".
- ceejayoz 8y agoThere's plenty of precedent. For example, red soled high-heel shoes: https://money.cnn.com/2018/06/12/news/christian-louboutin-ecj-red-sole-trademark/index.html https://money.cnn.com/2018/06/12/news/christian-louboutin-ec...
- iscrewyou 8y agoWhat a fascinating read. Especially Ferrarini‘a comment at the end. I hope she get a lot more royalties than what the article is saying.
- pp19dd 8y agoNot to diminish the sentiment (I agree, she should get a lot more) but the amount she's receiving now might exceed anything she's ever earned before in Brazil walking the beaches, so it's not a sad story yet, I think. From worldcrunch: "According to the Brazilian daily Estadao, a worker on the bottom end of Brazil’s pay scale earns roughly $77.40 per month, meaning it would take him or her three years and three months to earn what an average person at the top end of the spectrum makes in just one month: $3,019."
- jacquesm 8y agoThat's still borderline theft. She got robbed before and now other robbers gave her a pittance.
- jpmoyn 8y agoA sad tale of hypocrisy and the little guy losing. It would be less upsetting if Igrit wasn't so sue happy herself
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- trhway 8y agoor as the saying goes - he who screams the loudest.
- gnicholas 8y agoDoes anyone know more about the etymology of the closing quote “I want her to get screwed in green and yellow”? I assume this has something to do with those being the colors of the Brazilian flag, but when I googled all I found was this figurative translation: https://www.kwintessential.co.uk/blog/learn-a-language/idioms-across-europe-25-different-uses-colour-yellow https://www.kwintessential.co.uk/blog/learn-a-language/idiom...
- gregschlom 8y agoIt's a Brazilian idiom, somewhat equivalent to saying "royally" or "spectacularly". Green and yellow are indeed a reference to the Brazilian flag. The idea being that someone wearing these colors would probably be some official person in a very visible position, like a player of the national football team.
- dwighttk 8y agoDoesn't the national team usually wear primarily yellow and blue? I know there's some green in there but...
- raverbashing 8y agoYes, but the color pair most commonly used for the reference to the Brazilian colours is Green and Yellow
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- ulzeraj 8y agoBrazilians have terms that make no sense at all even in our own language. Things like greeting someone with “beleza?”(Beauty?) and the other end replying with “Jóia” (jewel). Other things include “pretending to be armless John” and “pull your small horse out of the rain”. Most of them have some obscure meaning that is unknown to most people nowadays.
- ArtWomb 8y agoHistory repeats itself. As Fortnite currently getting sued for infringing upon dance moves The Carleton, The Floss, etc.
- 7Z7 8y agoExactly, both dances taken from others and claimed as original by the litigants.
- hiccuphippo 8y agoAnd I've seen the Carlton in a couple of games much before Fornite was a thing.
- aaron695 8y agoIt's interesting it's used in so many games (This video only has some of them) at what point are they not copying him but a common dance move in games? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imK18LfWt7w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imK18LfWt7w
- hangonhn 8y agoI think the important difference might be that Fortnite is making money off of them. Not necessarily agreeing with the lawsuits but that may be one reason why Fortnite is being sued but not the others.
- WalterBright 8y agoThis is more common than you might think. A company once sent me a demand that I stop distributing my game Empire as I'd copied it from them. Turns out I had a registered copyright for it that preceded their company by about 10 years. Some people are just shameless.
- CobrastanJorji 8y agoDid you counter-demand that they stop distributing their game? Seems like it would have only been fair. Wait...Empire was published in 1987. Age of Empires was published in 1997. Are you talking about Microsoft?
- WalterBright 8y agoEmpire was created in the late 1970's. The details of the case are long settled, so I prefer not to rake the coals.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- craftyguy 8y agoFor the benefit of others who could learn from this experience, rake the coals.
- srean 8y agoPlease do. It would certainly inform folks what to expect.
- blahblahblogger 8y agoI'm also interested, if there isn't any repercussions why not share?
- tapland 8y agoMicroProse? Founded early 80s, creators of Civ
- bedhead 8y agoThis is Skechers' entire business model
- heyjudy 8y agoOf the risqué beachwear brands, Wicked Weasel is reasonably priced, been around a long time and generally cool with its adjunct model-brand-building business model (no pun intended). NSFW https://www.wickedweasel.com https://www.wickedweasel.com
- cpg 8y agoApple bullied me at some point https://blog.amahi.org/2011/06/21/apple-hits-amahi-with-a-cease-and-desist-wait-what/ https://blog.amahi.org/2011/06/21/apple-hits-amahi-with-a-ce...
- cannonedhamster 8y agoI remember this. You have the link change names every time you refresh the page. I couldn't believe that app store was something they wanted to copyright. It's literally short for Application Store. I always thought if you had someone sell your product on dedicated hardware it might work, but then that's a ton of overhead. :/
- briandear 8y agoThe term “App Store” wasn’t a thing until Marc Benioff creates it, abandoning the mark to Apple in 2008 when he and Steve Jobs discusses it (Benioff gave App Store to Apple and Salesforce used the more enterprise-sounding AppExchange.) The only reason that phrase became “generic” is because Apple made it into a household name. It wasn’t like people were using App Store in conversation until Apple’s App Store became a thing. Claiming it’s generic is a weak argument because that term as a description of a store used to sell computer programs didn’t happen until Benioff and Apple. You didn’t get “bullied”: you were using a phrase that had a valid trademark issued, knowing good and well that it was an Apple trademark. And, at the time of the trademark filing, it was anything but generic. It wasn’t like the term “Coffee Shop” which has been in common use for a very long time. App Store has a very specific meaning: it referred to Apple’s App Store, that others have attempted to use it doesn’t make it less novel. It was novel at the time of filing. It would be like trying to challenge the copyright on Kleenex or Chlorox: names that are in very common use, but common use arguments don’t work retroactively, which is what you seemed to have been arguing: “App Store is in common use so I should be able to use it.” It came into common use after Apple trademarked it, that doesn’t weaken the original filing. You could have used Application Shop, App Shop, App Emporium — a myriad of options. Instead, you specifically wanted Apple’s mark because Apple had done the work to legitimize the term so you wouldn’t have had to. You weren’t bullied: the trademark is valid and you infringed it. That it’s being challenged now is of no consequence— the mark is still, at present, valid.
- eevilspock 8y ago"In May, in exchange for using her crochet-and-elastic design and her name, PilyQ paid Ms. Ferrarini the equivalent of about $5,100. (In January 2019, she’ll get an annual fee of about $7,700.) Neiman Marcus and other major retailers now sell a suit under the name “Platinum Inspired by Solange Ferrarini” for about $170." Everyone is screwing everyone.
- mmsimanga 8y agoJust the other day on HN was the thread on "Why Aren’t Rich People Happy With the Money They Have?"[0] You would think $9M would make her more content with life. But sadly as humans we seem to always want more. I often wonder whether it is easy to judge because I don't have that money and those problems. Either way her greed was her undoing. She could have happily continued making a decent amount of money from the bikinis even with competitors selling similar wares. [0]https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/12/rich-people-happy-money/577231/ https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/12/rich-peop...
- Cthulhu_ 8y agoOh for sure, people will keep comparing themselves to others. 9M is still not "fuck you" money, it'll buy you a Lamborghini but not a classic car collection and the means to store, maintain and secure it. For example.
- kowdermeister 8y agoPlease. $9M is very very much deep in the fuck you money territory.
- kkarakk 8y agowell i guess the point the parent commenter was making is that it's middle class fuck you money. once you enter the rarefied space of say, new york's upper west side it's probably chump change
- lordnacho 8y agoWhat happens it you get bullied by someone into settling a suit and it later turns out to be baseless? Seems like real life poker.