Fendi vs. Fox

This is the kind of decision that makes me doubt about IP! I actually have not seen the full text yet, but the article published by Italy’s most authoritative economic newspaper – “Il Sole 24 Ore” – leaves a few doubts.

The Court of Rome deemed the two marks in the images not to be confusingly similar … for real! The first mark is the well known Fendi Monogram, the second is the less known monogram used by the Israeli fashion firm Fox.

Considering Fendi’s use of its monogram in almost 100 years of history, it is easy to understand that we are dealing with a famous and well-known mark; moreover, the similarities with the Fox monogram are so strong that I can hardly imagine why the judge refused Fendi’s claim.

However, I think – hope – this is just a single case. In many other cases regarding counterfeit marks in the same field (i.e. Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Chanel’s monograms), the case-law is usually favourable to the protection of famous marks against marks confusingly similar (like for the LV vs LX monogram).