Off-White files infringement suit against Paige Denim

By

Obi Anyanwu

Published
Apr 25, 2017

The fashion industry is rife with lawsuits, especially ones involving copyright infringement over stripe patterns. Off-White, the contemporary brand from Virgil Abloh, and denim brand Paige are in the middle of a legal dispute over the former's diagonal stripe trademark.

Paige drew first in January by sending a cease and desist letter to Off-White, demanding that the brand stop using the diagonal stripe pattern and withdraw its federal trademark application. The denim brand asserts that its nine-stripe design has been its logo since its launch in 2005.
 
Off-White this month filed a trademark lawsuit against Paige over the diagonal line logo, which Off-White received federal trademark protection for in February. The brand had used the stripe design since its founding in 2013, years after Paige introduced the stripe design. 

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While Paige stitches nine yellow lines along the back pockets, Off-White prints alternating lines on its garments, typically on the back of shirts and jackets. The Off-White logo features 15 lines though only 7 or 8 are visible depending on the color of the garment. Off-White also argues that Paige’s claim is invalid since it has not used its nine line logo for three years.

According to the contemporary brand, its logo is “applied to the Off-White Products themselves and the hang tags and interior labels associated therewith, and the Paige Design Marks, which are primarily only applied as stitching to the back pockets of Paige Jeans, are neither identical, nor are they confusingly similar.”
 
The brands tried to settle out of court over three months, but a settlement could not be reached.