At first glance, Gucci and Cuggl seem a world away from overlapping in terms of brand image and copyright. The former is a traditional Italian luxury company with a global reach, the latter a small Japanese fashion company parodying such luxury brands. They seem to have little in common until one spots the latter’s logo on a T-shirt, the bottom half of which has been cleverly defaced. It could almost be Gucci.
Cuggl was founded by Osaka-based entrepreneur Nobuaki Kurokawa, who sells t-shirts parodying famous brands. Mr. Kurokawa registered the names CUGGL and GUANFI (both in capital letters) in October 2020. The latter looks like Chanel when the bottom half is defaced.
According to Marks IP, a Japanese law firm, Gucci filed an opposition against the trademark, which also uses a hand-painted line in pink and was filed for use on clothing, shoes, headwear and apparel in Class 25b. The Japan Patent Office (JPO) rejected Gucci’s opposition to “CUGGL” on the grounds that it was unlikely that customers would mistake the mark for the real GUCCI.
GUCCI vs. CUGGL
“Gucci alleged that the trademark was filed with malicious intent to exploit the brand’s goodwill and reputation by hiding the lower part of the term CUGGL,” according to Mark’s IP. According to Gucci, the pink color makes the text recognizable as “GUCCI”.
However, Mr. Kurokawa’s T-shirts obscure just over half of the text, hiding most of the term. Cuggl, pronounced “kyuguru” in Japanese, isn’t the only brand Mr. Kurokawa is parodying. T-shirts that mimic the Puma logo as an animal name, as well as parodied t-shirts with Adidas, Nike, Prada and Balenciaga logos have already been reworked. So Gucci might be in good company when it comes to its humorous approach to luxury logos.
The Financial Times reports that Japan’s patent office tends to decide that people are smarter than the anti-parody big brands would like.
Does fashion need parody?
After all, the parody has value and says something about consumerism and luxury. Plain logo t-shirts are a major revenue stream for luxury brands. They typically consist of a simple cotton t-shirt with a logo affixed to the front or back, but come with exuberant price tags for what the product actually is.
This sense of humor is not shared by the fashion houses, who are keen to protect their brands as well as potential revenue losses. When Gucci and Balenciaga staged a carefully planned attack on each other’s brands last year, the Kering-owned companies became litigious when the attack affected them.
The prestige they sell is to give an image of exclusivity. But with social and economic commentary from brands like Cuggl undermining their message, legal uncertainty and the sheer power of brands mean parodists are vulnerable to legal action from brand owners, argue the authors of The Luxury Economy and Intellectual Property: Critical Reflections”.
While Gucci and other luxury companies enjoy freedom of speech and wide-ranging influence over global consumers—Vetements’ DHL parody is a key example—they don’t welcome the inversion of their brands’ subjectivity.
This translated article originally appeared on FashionUnited.uk.