LAW: Battle of the red sole

At the mention of Christian louboutin what automatically comes to the mind of every fashion lover is the much coveted sexy lacquered red sole. The famous French designer over the years has had to fight to save his beloved trademark and protect the exclusivity of the red sole.

                     Louboutin black peep toe shoe with red sole

YSL's suede peep toe heels from their Resort 2011 collection

Yves saint Laurent in its resort 2011 collection featured colored shoes with matching colored soles. The red suede shoes with matching red soles also featured in that collection was the subject of the litigation between the two fashion houses. Christian Louboutin sued Yves  Saint Laurent America inc. for violation of its trademark and sought damages to the tune of $1 million for infringement on its 2008 granted trademark. 

The court deciding upon the issue ruled that YSL is allowed to produce monochromatic red shoes (shoes with both upper and sole red),  and also that Louboutin's trademark isn't infringed upon if the entire shoe is red like that of Yes Saint Laurent. Following this decision,  it appears that louboutin has monopoly of the red soles in the entire fashion industry.

                 Louboutin's Lady Spiked Leopard-Print Pump (left) & Alba's version (right)

   More recently in a bid to protect this monopoly, Christian Louboutin sued Alba footwear, Easy Pikins inc., and Alan h.warshak for the sale of red soled shoes. Louboutin is seeking $2 million in damages and injunctive reliefs. Interestingly although the shoes produced by Alba are almost replicas of Christian Louboutin shoes (with one named Christian) that is not the subject of the suit. The suit is limited to the replication of the red sole and the infringement of Christian louboutin's trademark. This would be an interesting suit, keeping my fingers crossed while hoping the law would once again side with beloved Louboutin.