Vetements vecht handelsmerkzaak aan bij Hooggerechtshof VS

The French fashion brand Vetements has been used to the Supreme Court of the United States with the request to revise a trademark case. The company is challenging a decision of a lower court that has rejected the trademark request for the name ‘Vetements’.

The core of the case is the question of whether the brand name, which means ‘clothing’ in French, can be registered as a trademark in the US. The company states that the legal system wrongly relies on the English translation of a French word to determine whether it can be registered as a trademark.

The first request of Vetements was rejected by the American trademark agency, because the word was considered too generally considered a clothing brand. An American Court of Appeal agreed with the ruling and ruled that enough Americans would understand the French meaning of the word.

In response, Vetements says that it is unfair to assess a non-English trademark based on its translation. The company believes that a brand name must be assessed on its own merits, and not just on the literal translation. Vetements believes that this does not reflect how consumers actually experience the brand.

The brand also points out that different courts in the US take conflicting views on the issue, making the case suitable for the Supreme Court to create clarity. By tackling the case, the Supreme Court could set a clear rule for the handling of foreign words in the US trademark legislation.