Irvine-based Stussy Inc. and Los Angeles-based Fresh Jive Manufacturing Inc. are in a spat over a logo parody.
The Orange County surfwear company recently filed a lawsuit against Fresh Jive for trademark infringement, injury to business reputation, false representation and unfair competition.
The complaint in part asks Fresh Jive to stop selling and destroy T-shirts that parody Stussy’s stylized graffiti-style logo.
The spat has moved online, with Fresh Jive devoting the home page of its Web site to the suit.
On the site, Fresh Jive says the Stussy T-shirt was part of a new line included in its spring 2005 offering called “The Mad Parody Series.”
Other shirts in the series poke fun at the logos of other OC action sports brands, such as Santa Ana-based Obey Clothing.
“We think that Rick Klotz and his Fresh Jive brand is and has been extremely creative through the years, and we view these parodies as just another clever concept from Rick,” said Don Juncal, partner at Santa Ana-based One3Two, which makes Obey clothing.
Fresh Jive is known for its irreverent humor and graphics-driven clothing collection.
Each design spoofs the original brand logo,Fresh Jive’s version of the Obey logo replaces Andre the Giant with Mad magazine mascot Alfred E. Newman. The Stussy takeoff replaces that company’s name with Fresh Jive’s.
The designs are framed by the words “The Official Fresh Jive Mad Parody Series.”
Rick Klotz, Fresh Jive founder and president, said he launched the line to make a social statement about the logos of familiar clothing companies.
Klotz said the company wanted to point out the “mundane similarities” of these clothes and the “commercial artistic restrictions” of being in the genre. He writes that customers buying these clothes are “sheep” that are “buying into the fantasy of the image associated with corporate logos, and specifically clothing companies (and the Fresh Jive mark is no exception).”
As for Stussy, Klotz said he wasn’t “trying to gain commercially off of another logo, but to make a defiant social and cultural statement about the ludicrous nature of our commercial consumer culture.”
Stussy isn’t buying it.
John Sommer, Stussy’s attorney, said Fresh Jive had asked Stussy’s permission to use their trademark and the OC company said “No.”
“They claim it’s a parody and protected by the first amendment,” Sommer said. “It is not a legally permissible use.”
Over the years, Stussy has done its own logo parodies, including ones on Louis Vuitton of New York and the New York Knicks basketball team.
Sommer said there are non-infringing parodies and infringing parodies,Fresh Jive’s is infringing.
Stussy is among a slew of Orange County action sports apparel brands that devote a lot of time and money defending its trademarks and fighting copy cats.
Sommer said Stussy continues to “vigorously enforce our trademarks and we’re doing so in this case.”
Fresh Jive’s Klotz has a different take.
He said “the rights of our parody graphic is clearly protected under United States law, and I feel that the Stussy Corporation is being unjust.”
Stussy cofounder Shawn Stussy is featured on Fresh Jive’s Web site wearing a sample of its Stussy T-shirt parody. Klotz said a mutual friend gave it to Shawn Stussy, who agreed to wear it and post the photo on the site in “support of the art of parody.”
When asked about the photo, Sommer said: “Sean retired about nine years ago. I don’t know what more needs to be said about that. Any person wearing an infringing T-shirt doesn’t make it non-infringing.”
Baked Goodie
Santa Ana-based DGWB Advertising beat out several shops to be named agency-of-record for Marie Callender Pie Shops Inc. of Aliso Viejo.
DGWB’s account supervisor Michael Gurrieri will head the work, which focuses on regional advertising.
“Our goal is to touch the consumer at all points of contact with a relevant message, and revamp the Marie Callender image with a contemporary look and feel,” Gurrieri said.
The restaurant chain, known for its homemade pies, said it chose DGWB because of its experience with other food accounts, such as Wienerschnitzel, owned by Newport Beach’s Galardi Group Inc.
The Marie Callender chain turned 57 this year. It’s been trying to build a hipper image.
During the past few years the company, which is owned by New York-based private equity firm Castle Harlan Partners III LP, has spruced up restaurants, revamped its menu and eyed growth,all in a bid to jumpstart sales and appeal to a younger audience.
