Ah, stripes. In history they caused quite a few problems: associated with evil and transgression during the Middle Ages, they were donned by court clowns, jugglers, prostitutes, hangmen, lepers and heretics, just to mention a few categories ostracised by the rest of society.
Yet, in modern times, the anti-stripe sentiment gradually died and striped patterns in all colours and configurations became quite popular, arty, trendy and graphically desirable.
They are actually so desirable that they have been causing some bellyaches to a couple of brands currently embroiled in a trademark lawsuit over striped logos.
In April 2017 Off-White, the brand designed by longtime Kanye West insider and collaborator Virgil Abloh, filed a trademark lawsuit against Paige Denim about its diagonal stripe trademark (Off-White LLC v. Paige, LLC f/k/a Premium Denim, LLC, 1:17-cv-2904 (SDNY)). The brand asked U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to hold that its diagonal stripe trademark was not infringing the denim brand's own striped mark.
Launched in 2005, Paige's trademark features nine vertical and tilted brushstroke-like lines that are mainly replicated on denims as stitching on the back pockets; Off-White began instead using its own trademark stripes comprising alternating parallel diagonal lines in 2013.
Off-White's trademark lawsuit followed Paige's cease and desist letter to Virgil Abloh's brand sent in January 2017, demanding that it cease all use of its diagonal striped mark (that received federal trademark protection in February).
In March Paige also filed a petition to cancel Off-White's existing trademark registration, arguing that it is too similar to Paige's pre-existing trademarks. The parties attempted to settle the matter out of court, but so far no settlement was reached.
In a way the entire story is rather surprising and slightly ridiculous especially when you consider that black and white diagonal stripes represent a dynamic surface structure that has been around for decades and that continuously reappear on fashion runways because they represent a timeless combination - remember for example Miu Miu's Resort 2016 collection that featured graphic patterns borrowed from the industrial design of Manchester's Haçienda?
It is easy to wonder why and how Abloh was granted federal trademark protection for his logos: as seen from the trademark lawsuit documents, he registered a mark including fifteen alternating parallel diagonal lines of varying sizes forming the shape of a rectangle (filed in class 35, which extends to "Retail store services" and "online store services"); a mark alternating fifteen parallel diagonal lines forming a square and being used on apparel for men and women; and a final logo consisting of nineteen alternating parallel diagonal lines of varying sizes forming the shape of a rectangle, and filed in classes 18 (bags) and 25 (apparel for men and women).
Yet all the registered marks look like banal combinations of diagonal black and white lines, certainly more graphic than Paige's (which may mean Paige is wrong in the context of this legal dispute) but definitely generic.
In a way you feel that, while stripes were dangerous and diabolic centuries ago, nowadays they do not necessarily hint at disorder and transgression, but at the latent unoriginality in fashion.
The trademarked Off-White logos actually show a sort of laziness and a will to make money by suing each other rather than making business manufacturing original and unique products.
Black and white stripes may be striking on a visual level, but they aren't certainly exclusive, in fact they are incredibly common (see cross-walks...). Off-White fans may claim that Abloh is a genius since, rather than using traditional brand-identifying logos that immediately distinguish other products (think about the Lacoste crocodile), he is using a widely employed pattern, almost to ensure his brand a major global popularity (that it may not have...). In this way, whenever his fans may see black and white stripes, they will conjure up in their minds the brand they like. At least this is what some Abloh supporters claim (so, does this mean that, if a brand uses a traffic cone as its logo, consumers will immediately think about it whenever they see a traffic cone on a road?)
The Off-White v. Paige dispute continues for the time being and the two brands are now headed for trial. It looks like there will be more chapters to add to the long history of the "diabolical" stripes.
In the meantime another chapter should be opened as one of the most popular Off-White logos, showing two arrows criss-crossing (a motif often accompanied by stripes), seems lifted from the logo designed by Kinnear Calvert & Associates for Glasgow Airport in the '60s (in a way the arrow motif on Off White's garments is also slightly reminiscent of the minimalist graphics by Italian designer AG Fronzoni, like the ones for his 1979 poster for the Genoa-based event entitled "Il segno urbano" View this photo).
Kinnear Calvert & Associates helped creating a new corporate identity for Glasgow Airport in 1964, coming up with white letterforms and a minimastic symbol, a sort of industrial take on the St Andrew's Cross, with arrows pointing in and out. The symbol was accompanied with a striped yellow scheme for the airport's vehicles, forklift trucks and flight ladders. So who should sue who in this case?
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