Louboutin’s red-soled shoes give Dutch shoe maker the boot
Louboutin took vanHaren to court in 2012 after it sold similar shoes, with the court deciding the use of colour in a certain position can be trademarked
Luxembourg — French luxury shoe designer Christian Louboutin won a lengthy EU legal battle over trademarking his signature red-soled high-heeled shoes, the court and the company said on Tuesday. Louboutin took Dutch shoe maker vanHaren to court in the Netherlands in 2012 after it sold similar shoes, with the Parisian designer insisting he had already registered the style in Europe. The arcane legal dispute centred on whether Louboutin’s trademark involved a shape or a colour. "I can confirm that Louboutin won the case. The Dutch company has to respect the trademark," a spokesperson for the European Court of Justice, the bloc’s top court, told AFP. The Dutch company took the case to the EU court citing European regulations that shapes, by themselves, cannot be registered as trademarks. But Louboutin argued that the use of a colour in a certain position — specifically in this case a red pigment called Pantone 18 1663TP — can be. On Tuesday, judges in Luxembourg rejected the official a...
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