Nirvana and high-end fashion designer Marc Jacobs are headed to court. This time, however, it’s not the music the two popular brands are fighting over, but the use of Nirvana’s well-known smiley face logo, which Marc Jacobs slightly altered for use on one of its t-shirts.
A report shared by The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday says Marc Jacobs is countersuing Nirvana after a California federal judge permitted the band to move forward with its December 2018 lawsuit alledging that the fashion designer is violating copyright infringement, false designation of origin, trademark infringement and unfair competition. The suit comes after Marc Jacobs released a t-shirt with a strikingly similar design to Nirvana’s smiley face logo with crossed-out eyes, which Jacobs replaced with the initials M.J.
The judge initially said Nirvana owns the copyright registration of the smiley face and that the band’s design is similar enough to Jacobs’ T-shirt to survive the defendant’s motion to dismiss. Jacobs attorneys even deposed both surviving Nirvana members in David Grohl and Krist Novoselic, who each testified under oath that they didn’t know who created the band’s logo.
Jacobs’ countersuit claims, “The apparent absence of any living person with first-hand knowledge of the creation of the allegedly copyrighted work in question, coupled with numerous other deficiencies in the 166 Registration that is the basis for Nirvana’s infringement claim are the basis for the counterclaim asserted.”
Kurt Cobain obviously cannot testify, which should give some weight to Jacobs’ argument on the validation of who the trademark owner of the band’s logo really is.
This Story Is Ongoing.
[H/T The Hollywood Reporter]