Wal-Mart slapped with another infringement suit

Wal-Mart and rapper-turned-fashion-designer, Master P (Percy Miller) are being sued by a London-based jeans designer, Pepe Jeans London LLC, the latest in a long line of infringement suits brought against the retailer. Hip hop site BallerStatus (which, by the way, gets the award for coolest publication we’ve ever referenced) has the full story: Pepe alleges that the stylized “P” logo used for Wal-Mart/Miller’s “P. Miller” jeans infringes on Pepe Jeans’ logo, which also features a stylized “P.”

Master P And Wal-Mart Sued By Pepe Jean [Baller Status]

In documents filed in a Manhattan federal court last week, the company alleges that the logo infringes on the Pepe Jeans P logo, which is a stylized P enclosed in a circle. They also cite the use of the logo on P. Miller jeans’ hangtags.

This isn’t the first time Wal-Mart has been sued for infringement. Earlier this year, Wal-Mart settled a long-standing infringement lawsuit with Adidas, says a September 4, 2008 article in Footwear News:

In the original lawsuit, filed in August 2005, Adidas accused Wal-Mart of violating and diluting its trademark. The athletic brand’s complaint derived primarily from the retailer’s sale of shoes and sandals with two stripes. Adidas claimed the designs aped its three-stripe trademark.

Wal-Mart has also been sued for selling ‘fake’ Fendi Purses and Tommy Hilfiger shirts. From a 2006 article in BusinessWeek:

In 1998, after many rounds in court over several years with Tommy Hilfiger [Wal-Mart] paid out $6.4 million to settle a lawsuit that it was selling fake Hilfiger brand T-shirts. And in 1999 it paid more than $1 million to Nike (NKE) after being sued on similar charges.

Posted by Luke West on Thursday, October 02, 2008

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