Chrome Hearts has lodged its latest lawsuit against Fashion Nova. This time the fashion brand is accusing the fast fashion company of copying a custom look that it created for Kim Kardashian – complete with the same embroidery and other embellishments that make use of Chrome Hearts’ trademark-protected cross logos. In the complaint that it lodged with the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on September 3, Chrome Hearts claims that Fashion Nova is on the hook for trademark infringement, false designation of origin, and unfair competition as a result of its manufacture and sale of the lookalike garments.
Setting the stage in the newly-filed lawsuit, Chrome Hearts asserts that it has amassed a robust arsenal of rights for its various trademarks, including the cross marks at issue here, as a result of its continuous use of those marks “as source identifier[s] on various goods, including clothing, for up to 35 years.” Through “longstanding use, advertising, and registration,” Chrome Hearts argues that its marks “have achieved a high degree of consumer recognition in the U.S. and the world over and constitute famous marks.”
Chrome Hearts claims that it “has achieved such fame as to be copied by others without authorization … as is the case with many other luxury brands.”
> Note: To our knowledge, no court has definitively held (and almost certainly would not determine) that Chrome Hearts’ cross marks rise to the level of fame required for a dilution claim, for example, which is presumably why the company does not make one. With that in mind, it seems that Chrome Hearts is using the word “famous” here is a more traditional (or layman) sense and not as a legal term of art.
Despite maintaining rights in its cross trademarks, Chrome Hearts argues that it discovered in May that Fashion Nova was selling a copycat version of the custom two- piece outfit that it made “for a prominent A-list celebrity and influential figure, [which] features the Cemetery Cross Patch and CH Cross marks.” That celebrity is Kim K, who wore the suede two-piece set – which Chrome Hearts rightly states “was featured in multiple media accessible by the public” – to the GQ Men of the Year Awards in November 2023.
The problem is not Fashion Nova’s replication of the underlying garments, themselves, namely, the caramel-colored halter top and matching skirt (garment designs in their entirety, after all, are generally not protected by law). Instead, Chrome Hearts is waging causes of action against Fashion Nova due to its inclusion of “marks that are identical with, substantially indistinguishable from, or confusingly similar to” Chrome Hearts’ Cemetery Cross Patch and CH Cross marks on the copycat top and skirt.
Fashion Nova’s sale of the trademark-bearing garments has “misled and confused [consumers], and were intended to cause confusion, or to cause mistake, or to deceive as to the origin, affiliation, or association of the accused products with Chrome Hearts,” the complaint claims. As a result of Fashion Nova’s “extreme, outrageous, fraudulent” conduct, which “was inflicted on Chrome Hearts in reckless disregard of Chrome Hearts’ rights,” the company sets out claims of trademark infringement and/or counterfeiting, false designation of origin and false descriptions, and unfair competition.
Chrome Hearts is seeking monetary damages plus injunctive relief to bar Fashion Nova from manufacturing, marketing, or selling products that bear its trademark “or any other marks identical, substantially indistinguishable, or confusingly similar thereto.” It also wants the court to require Fashion Nova to disclose its supplier(s) and manufacturer(s) of the allegedly infringing products and “provide all documents, correspondence, receipts, and invoices associated with the purchase of the products” at issue.
THE BIGGER PICTURE: No stranger to litigation, Chrome Hearts states in its complaint that “in the past five years, alone, it has “filed more than 100 lawsuits against defendants who infringed upon [its trademarks].” And it has many marks to base such litigation on. As TFL previously reported, behind the scenes of Chrome Hearts’ public rise – complete with buzzy collaborations, famous fans, and soaring prices at resale – has been a steady flow of trademark applications for registration lodged with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”), as well as international trademark bodies. (As of September 2021, the company boasted more than 225 registrations in the U.S.)
The company has consistently used (and continues to use) that arsenal of trademark rights in various word marks, stylized iterations of its brand name, and no shortage of Celtic crosses, fleur de lys, and horseshoe icons to take action against other companies – from China-based counterfeit-sellers to the likes of Guess, the Kooples, Target and Walmart.
Not the first clash between the two companies, Chrome Hearts states in its complaint that Fashion Nova, LLC has infringed its trademarks in the past, as well. In August 2020, Chrome Hearts “filed an action for trademark infringement against Fashion Nova, Inc. (which has since converted to a limited liability company, a current named defendant in this action), in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (Case No. 2:20- cv-07068).” While there were “different marks and products were at issue in that action,” Fashion Nova still “copied some of Chrome Hearts’ most famous marks just as [they] have done here.”
That lawsuit, which centered on a number of horseshoe-inspired motif trademarks, was confidentially settled in August 2021, per Chrome Hearts.
A representative for Fashion Nova was not immediately available for comment.
The case is Chrome Hearts, LLC v. Fashion Nova, LLC, 2:24-cv-07464 (C.D. Cal.)
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