Guess

Guess CEO Paul Marciano said that a judge vindicated his company in its trademark infringement case against Gucci when she decided that Guess should pay just $4.7 million in damages instead of the $300 million Gucci originally sued for.

In a statement, Marciano said Judge Shira Scheindlin's decision "definitely confirmed . . . that this case should have never gone to three years of litigation and trial." Scheindlin wrote that Gucci's claims of how much business Guess had taken from them by allegedly copying its designs over the last two decades was "highly speculative." Marciano largely agreed, calling the entire lawsuit "unconscionable by its scope."

"They 'forgot' to claim certain trademark rights that Guess used for 23 years . . . and the court sided with Guess," Marciano said. "When they found certain issues, they waited not months but years before acting and never wrote a letter, sent an email or picked up the phone to say, 'We have an issue.' That never happened."

Marciano said Guess is "extremely satisfied," and pointed out that Gucci itself has been accused of copying other designers.

"Gucci maybe should look at their own designs and inspirations when it comes to other brands of who they get inspired by," he said. "Everyone will remember Roberto Cavalli's statement from WWD on Feb. 24, 2012, that Gucci basically copied his entire collection of 2010. Gucci never responded to that."

Gucci initiated the lawsuit in 2009, claiming that Guess concocted a "calculated scheme" to knock off its designs and did so over the course of several decades. After years of legal volleys, the case went to trial in March.

>> Guess left the final courtroom session of its trademark infringement case with Gucci on slightly stronger footing, but the judge in the case has yet to make a final decision.

Daniel Petrocelli, defense lawyer for Guess, argued yesterday that his client's products simply didn't infringe on any of Gucci's "weak trademarks," primarily because other brands had similar designs. He also pointed out that if Gucci had been legitimately concerned about Guess making Gucci knockoffs over 20 years ago, it would have filed this lawsuit sooner.

Judge Shira Scheindlin asked Gucci's lawyer Louis Ederer why his client didn't come to court sooner and didn't seem satisfied by his answer that at the time, Gucci's focus was on shutting down counterfeiters.

Still, Ederer's closing statement maintained that Guess wantonly re-created Gucci's products. Earlier in the trial, he presented emails between Guess and its licensees that suggest Guess worked specifically to mimic Gucci's style.

"This was a perfect storm of willful infringement," Ederer said. "It was in fact a calculated scheme."

Calculated or not, the Guess team left the court in high spirits.

"We had a good day," said Guess CEO Paul Marciano, who testified in the trial last week. "I think we put up, in my view, overwhelming evidence of good faith that there was no infringement."

Scheindlin is expected to hand down her final decision on the case within the next few months.

Gucci's lawsuit claims that over 150 products produced by Guess and its licensees since the late '80s knocked off Gucci's signature diamond logo pattern and striped ribbon motif. The suit seeks damages of $221 million and an order for Guess to stop selling the offending products.

Photo: Marciano with model Alyssa Miller in 2010.

Christian Louboutin's Straratata at left; Jessica Simpson's Evangel at right.

>> Those stories and more in our daily news roundup.

• As if its trademark lawsuit against Yves Saint Laurent wasn't enough to worry about, Christian Louboutin now has to deal with the possibility that Jessica Simpson may have copied his Straratata sandal. [The Huffington Post]
  

• Speaking of copyright infringement: Guess CEO Paul Marciano defended his company against accusations that it's been knocking off Gucci. "I truly believe that if this is something Gucci was genuinely concerned with, they would have acted within days, everywhere," Marciano said in court. "Are you telling me today that suddenly you realize what's happened in 1995?" [The Daily Telegraph]
  

• Barbie is running for president, but not without a little help from Chris Benz. The designer created the campaign wardrobe for the new I Can Be President Barbie doll – which consists of a single suit. "She actually doesn’t have a change of clothes, and she’s not allowed to take those clothes off either," Benz explained. "That’s not what she does." [Styleite]
  

• Dior spokeswoman Charlize Theron is on the May cover of Vogue UK. In the accompanying feature story, she reveals that being a model isn't as easy as it looks. "That f***ing walk, so hard to do," she says of the forceful strut she performed in her iconic J'adore Dior commercial. [Fashion Etc.]

>> After three years of legal volleys, Guess and Gucci finally met in federal court on Wednesday to get the much-delayed trademark trial between them underway.

Gucci sued Guess in 2009, claiming that a number of Guess products mimicked and imitated Gucci's design elements, including a large block letter "G" and red and green stripes. Gucci's lawyers say Guess has knocked off over $200 million worth of Gucci product.

"This case is not about following fashion trends," said Louis Ederer, Gucci's lawyer, to WWD. "It's about a massive, complicated scheme to knock off Gucci's best-known and iconic designs."

Guess's legal team said Gucci's case is "built on a house of cards," pointing out that Gucci only complained to Guess about its products once. Guess's intellectual property experts also stopped the production of a sneaker that they thought looked too similar to one of Gucci's.

It's not often that trademark infringement cases actually go to trial. This one could take up to three weeks to resolve, but it's not the only one the Gucci group has in the works — its sister company Yves Saint Laurent is currently involved in a court battle with shoemaker Christian Louboutin over its trademark red soles.

Below, a side-by-side comparison of the controversial shoes.