Gucci sues Guess? for trademark infringement

Guess? Inc was sued by Gucci Group’s US unit for trademark infringement over allegations the Los Angeles-based apparel company uses a network of wholesale buyers to sell imitations of Gucci’s best-selling designs.

Guess allegedly sells knockoffs of Gucci’s “famous” green-red-green stripe designs and interlocking “GG” patterns on footwear, wallets and other accessories, according to a complaint filed on Wednesday in federal court in New York.

Gucci, the luxury company owned by Paris-based PPR SA, said the products are “part of a sophisticated and elaborate scheme to target Gucci, to create products that are similar in appearance to the most popular and best-known Gucci products.”

Guess sells the alleged imitations through its own retail stores as well as factory outlets, websites and a “vast” network of third-party companies that buy the disputed goods wholesale, Gucci said in its complaint. The company has more than 1,000 stores, according to its website.

Guess has “replicated entire Gucci product designs, to the point that there appears to be a concerted effort to ‘Gucci-ise’ defendant’s product line,” Gucci alleges. Gucci seeks unspecified money damages and a court order barring Guess from using the disputed designs and patterns.

The luxury brand also wants Guess to deliver for destruction all existing items that bear the allegedly infringing marks.

A call to Guess’s headquarters seeking comment wasn’t immediately returned on Wednesday.