[E-trademarks] VETEMENTS case going up to SCOTUS

[Sam Castree]

To point #3, wow, it's hard to see how the lawyers made that argument with
a straight face.

Cheers,

Sam Castree, III

*Sam Castree Law, LLC*
*3421 W. Elm St.*
*McHenry, IL 60050*
*(815) 344-6300*



On Wed, Sep 10, 2025 at 10:20 AM Jessica R. Friedman via E-trademarks <
e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com> wrote:

>
>
>
> https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/04/world/europe/vetements-trademark-lawsuit.html
> raises a few questions for me:
>
>
>
>    1. The NY Times reporter analogizes the registration of VEUVE CLIQUOT,
>    which means “widow cliquot” and refers to the company matriarch, for
>    champagne, to the registration of VETEMENTS, which in French means
>    clothing, for clothing. Is that an analogy the applicant has actually made,
>    or is this just the usual ignorance of NY Times articles when it comes to
>    IP?
>
>
>
>    2. The PTO refused registration on the ground that the mark is merely
>    descriptive and that it appears to be generic. How can it be both?
>
>
>
>    3. The applicant’s response to the OA included the argument that
>    “vetements” referred only to clothing as a category, while they are
>    applying to register specific items of clothing: “*Although the word
>    “clothing” may have a relationship to an overall category of products, it
>    is not the descriptive (nor generic) term for any specific item. A
>    purchaser would not say they want to “buy a clothing.” Further, when the
>    mark VETEMENTS is encountered an observer would first have to undertake
>    translation of the word, and then draw a relationship to a specific item
>    such as a sweatshirt”. *I understand that we have to try any and every
>    credible argument, but that one doesn’t strike me as falling into that
>    category.
>
>
>
>
>
> Jessica R. Friedman
>
> Attorney at Law
>
> 300 East 59 Street, Ste. 2406
>
> New York, NY 10022
>
> Phone: 212-220-0900
>
> Cell: 917-647-1884
>
> E-mail: *jrfriedman at litproplaw.com <jrfriedman at litproplaw.com>*
>
> URL: *www.literarypropertylaw.com <http://www.literarypropertylaw.com>*
>
>
>
> [image: 1479430908386_PastedImage]
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> E-trademarks mailing list
> E-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com
> http://oppedahl-lists.com/mailman/listinfo/e-trademarks_oppedahl-lists.com
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://oppedahl-lists.com/pipermail/e-trademarks_oppedahl-lists.com/attachments/20250910/bd322c6f/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001[95].png
Type: image/png
Size: 8892 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://oppedahl-lists.com/pipermail/e-trademarks_oppedahl-lists.com/attachments/20250910/bd322c6f/attachment.png>