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Guess
Guess has been subject to 12 copyright complaints over the last ten years. But they
have successfully managed to resolve all previous situations almost immediately...
until they messed with Gucci.
Case
Guess used many of Gucci's distinctive marks, including a green and red stripe used
on handbags, the repeating, inverted GG pattern, and the company's use of brown
and beige colours, mostly used in conjunction with diamond shape patterns.
Of course, Gucci came out on top, but not in the way they had hoped for. Initially
asking for $221m in damages, the judge told Gucci they were only entitled to an
accounting of profits and limited the damages. In the end, Gucci only received
$4.7m.
Outcome
Guess was also barred from using most of their designs ever again, primarily the
Quattro G patterns in brown and beige colours and the CRG stripe. The judge
concluded that Over the years, Gucci has sent out hundreds of cease and desists
letters to entities ranging from national companies such as Bebe, Juicy Couture, and
Williams-Sonoma, all the way to small-time infringers, such as a counterfeiter
working out of her Los Angeles apartment and a rabbi in New York, who they
suspected might sell counterfeit Gucci products to benefit his synagogue. When it
came to Guess, they waited because the company was facing budgetary concerns
due to counterfeiters. Furthermore, the company had failed to bring non-speculative
evidence to court.
Final outcome
Oracle Corp won a legal victory against Google Inc as a U.S. appeals court decided
Oracle could copyright parts of the Java programming language, which Google used
to design its Android smartphone operating system.
A high-profile 2012 trial featured testimony from Oracle's chief executive, Larry
Ellison, and Google CEO Larry Page, and the legal issues go to the heart of how
tech companies protect their most valuable intellectual property.
Google's Android operating system is the world's best-selling smartphone platform. A
San Francisco federal judge had decided that Oracle could not claim copyright
protection on parts of Java, but the three-judge Federal Circuit panel reversed that
ruling.
"We conclude that a set of commands to instruct a computer to carry out desired
operations may contain expression that is eligible for copyright protection," Federal
Circuit Judge Kathleen O'Malley wrote.
"What we have is a decision that will definitely shake up the software industry," said
Samuelson.
But Oracle attorney E. Joshua Rosenkranz said the law has always been clear on
these issues. "There's nothing at all astounding in what the Federal Circuit did," he
said.