A few days ago, a district court denied Madonna’s effort to establish rights to the name “Material Girl” for her clothing line. The case was brought by L.A. Triumph, a company that has been selling women’s clothes under the name “Material Girl” since 1997.
Despite The Cut’s observation that L.A. Triumph was “piggybacking off [Madonna’s] title,” it’s true that trademarks are not about originality. In an interesting turn, the order referred to the “concert style shirts and tops” sold at Madonna concerts beginning in the 1980’s were not clothing, but rather “concert paraphernalia.”
Reports are that trial is set for mid-October. I’m curious to see whether the case will settle now that summary judgment has been decided, or whether we’ll be able to see what a jury does with this.
Posted by Amy Landers on September 2, 2011 at 11:23 AM