Copyright Law

Joseph Abboud: person v. trademark

By Andrew Raff, Esq.

JA Apparel Corp. v. Abboud (SDNY, June 5, 2008)

Ron Coleman, Likelihood of Confusion, Mad Abboud you: "It’s worth taking a look at because just reading the bare-bones fact pattern of it above, this doesn’t look like a hard case. But perhaps the juicy part of it slowed things down — such as how Abboud, not unsurprisingly for those creative types, showed up at JA Apparel after they’d bought his name lock and stock and barrel (more below) along with his clothing line and promptly found himself ‘unable’ to work with the company due to, yup, creative differences."

Rebecca Tushnet, 43(B)log, jaz hands: Joseph Abboud loses name to company he sold: "In a long and thorough decision, the magistrate judge concluded that noted fashion designer Joseph Abboud had transferred all rights to use his name in a commercial manner to JA Apparel, a menswear label he launched in 1987. He sold the label in 2000 for $65.5 million, along with the associated names, trademarks, etc., including ‘Joseph Abboud,’ ‘designed by Joseph Abboud, ‘JOE,’ ‘JA,’ and similar or derivative terms."

Wall Street Journal, Abboud Loses Trademark Case: "A federal judge ruled that menswear designer Joseph Abboud, who sold his trademark and later left the company that owns it, can't use his name to promote a new line he calls 'jaz."

Full post as published by IPTAblog on June 20, 2008 (boomark / email).