I definitely found this story interesting because it is local. It is about a West St. Louis County college student who decided to come up with his own line of apparel to help his parents with college expenses. It looks like what he came up with was a clothing line called South Butt, which seems to be opposite of the brand North Face, from the logo to the tag line used. For example, the South Butt tag line is "Never Stop Relaxing" and the North Face tag line is "Never Stop Exploring".
The student even went to the extreme of offering South Butt at a Ladue Pharmacy and online with a You Tube clip. North Face Apparel Corp. and attorneys did contact the teen and basically ordered him to stop selling his product and claimed that their customers would be confused. The South Butt lawyer replied that customers should be able to tell the difference between a face and a butt. This is definitely a case of whether or not Trademark Infringement is at hand.
I do think coming up with the South Butt brand was risky because it is exact opposite of the North Face brand. It would be a little different if South Butt didn't sell clothing and sold a line of comfortable chairs or something. I do, however, applaud the efforts of this college student taking initiative to raise funding for his college education, but he is kind of stepping on the toes of a larger corporation that can cost him more money that he has. Overall, there are some similarities between North Face and South Butt which I think makes it much harder for South Butt to convince any court or judge that trademark infringement is not involved.
Any thoughts? Check out the link below:
1 comment:
Isn't this a classic case of parody?
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