The long fight for the red sole continues as Louboutin seeks the aid of eleven law professors, who specialize in subjects like trademark law at universities across America in hopes that there is some loophole that can get him to own the coveted red sole.

This has been amended: YSL Receives Supportive Amicus Brief

Since this battle began YSL has been argueing that red is a color which cannot be patented and that they used it first. The judge agreed and denied the claims saying

should be rejected in order to preserve freedom of innovation and competition.

That wans’t good enough for Louboutin and their team of professors who released this statement:

“trademark as a kind of back door to perpetual patentlike protection for attractive but non-novel product features.…[If] the relevant consumers want a product feature because it is especially attractive, then that feature is not a proper subject of monopolization by a single producer — unless it meets the demanding novelty requirement of design patent.”

The professors went on to say:

A woman who buys red shoes is doing so for a reason — red shoes have a particular meaning to her, and to others, that cannot be supplied or even approximated by shoes of a different color. Given the substantial creativity involved in both fashion design and fashion consumption, courts should not lightly allow one particular competitor to monopolize particular fashion submarkets.

It is the hope of everyone that this get laid to rest sooner rather than later and that the two fashion giants reach an understanding or agreement amicably. Comments are flying around the internet saying that some women are no longer interested in the red sole and that because of this lawsuit they feel somewhat mixed up in the whole situation. It is this feeling that spurred YSL’s counted suit saying that this messy back-and-forthing has caused a loss of sales on the YSL red soled shoe that started all this controversy in the first place.

Where do you stand?

Team Louboutin

Or

Team YSL

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