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Louis Vuitton Opposes Trademark Application For Small Family Business Selling Gardening Tools

from the why? dept

If you go back and read nearly all of the posts we’ve done on luxury fashion company Louis Vuitton, you’ll see a history of a company that is about as big a pain in the ass when it comes to intellectual property bullying as you’ll find. The company often times takes it’s “protecting” of it’s IP rights, particularly trademark rights, to ridiculous extremes.

But I have to say the company’s opposition to the trademark registration for a gardening tools company had me double-checking to make sure it wasn’t parody.

The Norfolk-based company, L V Bespoke, was started by couple Lawrence and Victoria Osborne after their construction business was shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic. They sell plants, steel plant supports and a variety of handmade home and garden items. The fashion powerhouse, which owns its iconic interlocking “L” and “V” trademark, is opposing L V Bespoke’s application to register their name as a UK trademark at a hearing on Monday, The Eastern Daily Press reported.

“Louis Vuitton say they have superior rights to use the initials ‘L V’,” Victoria Osborne told the paper. “They have also raised concerns over our handcrafted metalwork products because they use metal for their ‘L V’ symbols on their handbags.”

If you’re not laughing at this point, you should be. The manner in which L V Bespoke is using those two letters, which come from the founders’ initials as it happens, is not infringing on Louis Vuitton’s trademarks for any number of reasons.

For starters, they operate in entirely different markets, no matter Louis Vuitton’s ham-fisted attempt to conflate its use of metal on handbags with — double-checks notes — plant poles for the garden. Add to that the fact that the trademark applied for is not just “L V”, but “L V Bespoke.” When taken in total, that term doesn’t bring to mind the fashion brand.

The Osbornes, who have already spent “tens of thousands of pounds” during the dispute, argued that Louis Vuitton can not claim exclusive rights to the letters “L” and “V.”

“Some of the things raised at the hearing were laughable and eyebrow-raising,” Victoria Osborne said.

That they’ve put up this much of a fight so far is impressive. However, the Osborne’s have also indicated that the business doesn’t have the money to fight beyond this. So either the UKIPO will be sensible, or L V Bespoke will need to operate without its trademark.

Filed Under: gardening tools, l v, likelihood of confusion, trademark, ukipo
Companies: l v bespoke, louis vuitton