Loro Piana has prevailed in a legal battle over a couple of its coveted footwear styles. In a recently published order dated November 25, the Court of Bari granted injunctive relief to Loro Piana and ordered MNSWR Group, SRL to refrain from producing, marketing and selling footwear that infringes on the LVMH-owned brand’s rights in its Open Walk and Summer Walk shoes, as well as its name. Additionally, the court permanently blocked MNSWR Group, which operates Italian menswear brand Viola Milano, from using the Loro Piana brand name “in any form or manner.”
The decision stem from the trademark and unfair competition case that Loro Piana waged against MNSWR Group, alleging that the Italian company’s “Capri” and “City” loafers infringe its Open Walk and Summer Walk shoes, namely, the source-indicating white rubber sole. The company also look issue with MNSWR Group’s use of the “Loro Piana” word mark on the Viola Milano website alongside clothing products, such as tailored jackets, “with the clear purpose of giving the impression that these were genuine Loro Piana products or that they were possibly [made from] Loro Piana fabrics.”
In its order, the court stated that MNSWR GROUP is prohibited from “producing, commercializing, and/or advertising, and/or importing products named ‘Capri Loafer’ and ‘City Loafer’ in any variation, including color variations, or any similar … products with the same characteristics, sold, including through its website, which infringe on [Loro Piana’s] trademark … in any form or manner, across the entire territory of the European Union.”
The court also enjoined MNSWR Group from using the LORO PIANA trademark “in any form or manner, including via its website.”
In terms of additional relief, the court imposed a penalty of €400.00 for each of the infringing pairs of shoes imported, sold, and/or commercialized – but did not provide a total damages sum in the publicly-released potion of its order. MNSWR Group must also pay €6,700.00 in litigation costs to Loro Piana. And still yet, the court’s order mandates that MNSWR Group publish the heading and the operative part of its order in two Italian newspapers, Corriere della Sera and Il Sole 24 Ore, “in double the normal font size, with the heading and the names of the parties in bold, and for a period of three months on the homepage of the website www.violamilano.com, without using links, and including an English translation.”
A Larger Enforcement Effort
The case comes as “part of Loro Piana’s intensive enforcement program intended to protect its Intellectual Property rights,” the company’s counsel at Trevisan & Cuonzo said in a statement. In a separate – but similar – win for Loro Piana earlier this year, a court in Turin, Italy sided with the company in a trademark case centering on the white rubber sole of its shoes. In an order issued in October, the Tribunale delle Imprese di Torino blocked a third-party footwear brand’s manufacture, marketing, and sale of lookalike shoes – which reproduce the “overall shape and main distinctive and characterizing elements” of Loro Piana’s Open Walks – in an apparent nod to Loro Piana’s rights in the popular footwear.
“The court’s recognition [of the] protectability of the trademark consisting of the shape of Loro Piana’s iconic Open Walk shoe represents a milestone of fundamental importance in the context of the enforcement program implemented by Loro Piana … against those who try to exploit the iconicity of said footwear, which represents one of the symbolic products of the maison,” Trevisan & Cuonzo’s Gabriele Cuonzo, who represented Loro Piana in the matter, said in a statement.
It is worth noting: Loro Piana’s $1,000-plus footwear and Vicuña garments are go-tos for quiet-luxury shoppers alongside the likes of Brunello Cucinelli and Hermès’ offerings. While LVMH does not break out individual figures for the Italian brand, it boasts annual sales of around one billion euros, according to analyst estimates. In lieu of a well-known logo or monogram (like those boasts by Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Goyard, Chanel, etc.), Loro Piana is looking to enforce the valuable indicators of source that it does rely on, which include the white rubber sole that appears on its Open Walk and Summer Walk shoe styles.
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