• Home
  • News
  • Business
  • Puma and Philipp Plein prepare to face off over logo battle

Puma and Philipp Plein prepare to face off over logo battle

By Kristopher Fraser

loading...

Scroll down to read more

Business

The battle between Puma and Philipp Plein is on. Puma recently won an injunction to stop Philipp Plein from using a leaping tiger logo that they say is too similar to its leaping Puma logo.

"At the end of 2017, we found out that he had started the new Plein-Sport line in which he reproduced this particular cat on T-shirts, hoodies, shoes and so on," Puma's head of intellectual property, Neil Narriman, said.

Plein Sport is the designer's answer for those guys who wanted something more fashion forward for the gym. The designer has also been known to recruit athletes and boxers to model his designs. Plein Sport got its own dedicated launch at Milan Fashion Week in 2017.

There are numerous pieces in Plein's collection adorned with a leaping tiger. Nerriman also says there are similar designs to Puma's throughout the collection.

The temporary injunction from a regional court in Duesseldorf prevents Plein's online store selling in Germany where Puma is based, although it doesn't affect his other international ventures. The Dusseldorf court didn't confirm whether or not they made an injunction, because such information is typically not made public in Germany. Puma is currently working on getting an injunction in other countries, including The Netherlands.

Puma gets injunction against Philipp Plein for jumping tiger logo

Philipp Plein's offices were not immediately available for comment. However, the designer took to social media to poke fun at the situation, offer his customers a discount and do a bit of philanthrophy.

In a video on his personal Instagram page, he posted a video of a tiger in motion, which then cuts away to reveal a message that says "Don't be a Puma, be a Tiger, Ship Us Your Puma Shoes and get a 50 percent Discount on new Plein Sport Collections, All Shoes Collected Will be Donated to the Less Fortunate."

The rule of life is simple: Hunt or get hunted..........BE A TIGER !

A post shared by Philipp Plein (@philippplein78) on

Puma was not immediately available for comment on Plein's Instagram post.

The next steps in this process would be a hearing for Plein to respond to Puma's allegations.

In many copyright and trademark cases, a brand has to prove that the other brand they are accusing of trademark of copyright and/or trademark infringement has cost them sales. Given the high price point of most of Philipp Plein's apparel compared to Puma's more accessibly priced goods, that would be hard to prove. Also, Puma isn't the only brand out there using a tiger logo. Gucci is also well known for using images of tigers in several of their designs, ranging from shoes to handbags. Kenzo is also known for their tiger sweatshirts and tiger logo apparel.

FashionUnited will be following this story as it progresses.

Photo:via pleinsport.com

Philipp Plein
Puma