It has been a crazy morning, and a crazy week for a lot of people in the denim industry. This is what Kiya posted to Superfuture, I have a feeling that the site is gonna crash soon, so I am posting it here:
Levi’s takes on Japanese Denim Resellers and Manufacturers (by Kiya of Self Edge)
here goes..
it’s been a long few days, so i’m basically going to spit out the facts:-Levi’s is suing your two favorite denim stores in America, along with Studio D’Artisan, Iron Heart, Toyo/Sugarcane, Oni (BS United), and Samurai.
-Everybody is being sued for trademark infringment
-All sales of the above mentioned brands are to be stopped by Friday, January 19, 2007 WORLDWIDE
-US and Japanese Customs are in on this, no jeans made by the above brands are to be sent out of Japan starting two days ago (January 15) to stores OR consumers. you’ve been warned, don’t attempt to order your jeans via a bidding service or have a friend send them to you
-The offending points are as follows: 1. There are to be NO tabs attatched between to pieces of fabric on the rear pockets, 2. The cards hanging out of the back pocket, stapled to the pocket, must not look anything like vintage/modern Levi’s Info Cards, 3. Arcuates on the rear pockets must not resemble the Levi’s arcuate in ANY way shape or form, 4. Rear leather patch cannot contain an image of two moving objects (horses, motorcylcles, pigs, etc..) pulling apart a pair of jeans
-All product with any of the above mentioned accents must be pulled from the shelves of every store in the world by Friday, January 19
-I’ve spoken to most of the manufacturers named in the lawsuit in Japan already and they are quickly working on producing jeans with either NO back pocket stitching or stitching that is greatly different than the Levi’s Arcuate. We are looking at a four week period where there will be very low stock of denim from these companies
-There are four more companies they’re going after, i cannot name those at this time.
-This is one of the most comprehensive and largest lawsuits Levi’s has filed against Japanese denim manufacturers
-I have two words for everybody “Denim Speakeasy”
a few quick updates:
-this was a court order, NOT ceast and desist.
-Levi’s is winning this, there’s no doubt about it
-This lawsuit has been many months in the works, maybe even before any of the aformentioned stores opened
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