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While Demna Gvasalia has been preparing for Balenciaga’s Spring/Summer 2019 runway show, the brand’s legal team has been readying for a fight. Counsel for the Paris-based brand moved to oppose a pending U.S. trademark application for registration this week, taking issue with “Pawlenciaga,” a trademark that is being used by Pawmain Pets, a North Carolina-based company in the business of making what it calls “parody streetwear for your pets.”
According to the opposition that Balenciaga filed on Monday, Pawmain Pets’ “Pawlenciaga” trademark – if registered for use on leather goods, as Pawmain has proposed – “will cause confusion, mistake and deception with respect to those goods, by virtue of [Balenciaga’s] prior registration, use and fame of its Balenciaga trademarks, including [on leather goods].” Moreover, Balenciaga alleges that Pawmain’s proposed registration “would substantially harm [Balenciaga]” and “is likely to cause confusion” with Balenciaga’s trademark rights, which date back to at least 1975.
For the uninitiated, numerous requirements must be satisfied before a trademark may be registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) and thus, receive nationwide protection. Following initial application, the mark is then included in the USPTO’s weekly publication in order to give others a chance to oppose. Any party who believes it may be damaged by registration of the mark then has thirty days to either file an opposition to registration (or request to extend opposition time). And that is exactly what Balenciaga has done.
More at http://www.thefashionlaw.com/home/balenciaga-takes-on-pet-company-over-pawlenciaga-trademark
