For Yves Saint Laurent’s spring 2011 collection, they created a pair of red pumps with red soles which made Christian Louboutin (who are known for their red soles) take legal actions against the French fashion house. The collection also included purple pumps with purple soles and green with green soles as well as navy with navy soles. But it was the red shoes that triggered the lawsuit of $1 million against YSL.
This is however not the first time YSL has made red shoes with red soles. But Loubuotin’s laywers says: “The defendants use of red footwear outsoles that are virtually identical to plaintiff’s Red Sole Mark is likely to cause and is causing confusion, mistake and deception among the relevant purchasing public as to the origin of the infringing footwear.”
As the lawsuit evolves, reports are saying that the usage of red soles hasn’t only been used by Louboutin and YSL. Giancarlo Giammetti claims that his partner, Valentino, used to be famous for his red gowns and also designed shoes with red soles back in 1969 and 1983 to match the gowns. Louboutin started designing red soles in 1992.
So the questions is, can the shoe label really claim ownership of a sole color? What do you think?
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Absolutely not. I read somewhere else that the judge said color is a part of fashion and cannot be trademarked. It may be their signature look but the certainly cannot take ownership of a single color. Naeem Khan fall ‘11 collection on the other hand has red soles and they may have some grounds if they sued Naeem Khan.