A controversial court decision was issued on Tuesday 12 July where the Japanese Trademark Office (JPO) favoured Japanese clothing brand “Cuggl” over Gucci in a trial involving the difference between counterfeit and parody Gucci items.
Gucci believed they had a case against Cuggl for one of the latter’s T-shirts which sports a similar logo to the luxury fashion house Gucci’s logo.
Despite this, the court found that it was not counterfeit, but parody instead. This entire court case says a lot about Japan’s quirky fashion culture who chose to mimic established clothing brands in a rather humourous way.
Japanese brand Cuggl specialises in parodying luxury brands with T-shirts that make a risky attempt at mimicking a number of label’s logos.
For example, the name Cuggl appears to share little in common with Gucci, but with the bottom half of the name strategically removed on the clothing, there is suddenly a strong resemblance.
However, the JPO has now ruled that Gucci has no reason to protest against Cuggl. They stated that consumers are smarter than that and no genuine confusion is possible.
Therefore, there is no “malicious intent to abuse goodwill and reputation”, which is what Gucci attempted to argue.
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Cuggl also parodies many other well-known brands from Prada to Puma, and they’re not the only ones in Japan who do this.
Japan is full of many creative clothing brands and subcultures, who challenge the established fashion world with humour and innovation.
Do you agree with the courts decision to side with parody driven brand Cuggl over Gucci? Please let us know your thoughts.
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