Louis Vuitton Struggles to Protect Its Sacred Trademark

Today Louis Vuitton had its Paris show (it was train-themed! They built a giant train! All the models had (non-union) porters!). Meanwhile, Louis Vuitton’s “director of civil enforcement for North America” is real mad at the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Intellectual Property Group. They’re holding a symposium later this month on fashion law and copyright, which is very fascinating! And their poster drew the ire of Vuitton, incorporating and parodying as it does their trademarked material. Vuitton’s claim that the poster’s “dilution” of their trademark is bizarre, and what’s amazing about these discussions now is how willfully everyone wants to misread copyright law. And now I am violating the copyright of the person who made this parody by reproducing it digitally here. The circle of life!