Louis Vuitton has been ordered to pay 900,000 euros by the Paris Court of Appeal in a seven-year copyright dispute.
Louis Vuitton has lost a copyright infringement case and has been ordered to pay 900,000 euros, reports the weekly newspaper Le Canard Enchaîné. The dispute concerned a graphic lock featured on Louis Vuitton’s Twist handbag, wallet and other accessories, created by independent designer Jocelyne Imbert.
The judges initially dismissed the plaintiff’s claim in the first court in 2020. In 1988, Jocelyne Imbert created a lock called “LV tournant” for Louis Vuitton Malletier, the ruling said ed-nederland.com. The court found that in 1992 Louis Vuitton Malletier and the designer signed a special contract on the use of the lock which provided that if a new range of bags or a new line of bags used the lock, the designer would receive a further payment of around €76,000. However, the designer said she discovered in 2014 that the brand was using the padlock in the new Twist line (and subsequently in other products) and contacted the company in writing, according to the court ruling.
“To summarise Louis Vuitton’s position, they claim that the 1992 agreement allows them to exploit my client’s design on every product. Needless to say, we don’t agree with that at all,” Jean-Philippe Hugot, the designer’s lawyer, told Vogue Business. “My client has always hoped for a negotiation with Louis Vuitton,” he adds.
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