Patagonia Sues Profane, ‘Shocking’ Replica Clothing Brand

Patagonia Inc. is suing the entrepreneurs of the “Assholes Stay Forever” clothes manufacturer in Los Angeles federal court for trademark infringement, alleging their business offered items using a profane reproduction of the Patagonia mark.

The grievance said KirillWasHere LLC and affiliated organizations offered shirts, hoodies, sweatpants, and hats that bear Patagonia’s emblem with the same “distinctive font and stylization” but modified to consist of a vulgarity. The company’s branding is put under the duplicate Patagonia mark.

The criticism, filed in the U.S. District Courtroom for the Central District of California, mentioned KirillWasHere’s brand name features as a trademark to be utilised in a “celebratory and shocking method,” in accordance to the brand’s federal trademark registration filings.

Patagonia claimed that design and style has diminished the distinctiveness of its brand, which has been in use because 1973. The infringing products and solutions would also trigger confusion amid buyers over whether or not Patagonia is affiliated with or licensed all those products and solutions, the grievance explained.

Photographer and occasion organizer Kirill Bichutsky wasn’t named as a defendant in the suit, but the grievance discovered his social media accounts as selling the infringing brand name.

The criticism said the defendants told Patagonia through counsel on March 1 that they would cease selling the infringing solutions. However, Patagonia reported it learned Bichutsky’s Instagram account was however advertising and marketing the patterns, and telling buyers to go to the company’s digital storefront.

The storefront, Patagonia mentioned, was offering a “mystery box” of items “We Are Not Legally Allowed to Demonstrate You.”

The U.S. Supreme Courtroom has weighed in on the question of profane trademarks, ruling in 2019 that the U.S. trademark office’s restriction on registering vulgar item names violated free speech.

Will cause of Motion: Trademark infringement, unfair opposition, dilution of popular mark, copyright infringement.

Aid: Injunctive aid, damages, attorneys’ expenses.

Reaction: Defendants weren’t straight away reachable for remark.

Attorneys: Verso Regulation Group LLP signifies Patagonia.

The circumstance is Patagonia, Inc. v. KirillWasHere LLC, C.D. Cal., No. 2:22-cv-01949, 3/24/22.