Nirvana has filed suit to protect their copyrighted smiley face logo.
They claim that Mark Jacobs International infringed on the design in its Redux Grunge Collection, which was released in November.
The band’s complaint says the logo, which the late Kurt Cobain created in 1991, is copyright-protected and trademarked and that “a significant portion of the consuming public assumes that all goods or services that bear the logo are endorsed by or associated with Nirvana.
A number of items in the Jacobs collection, which even includes a T-shirt called Bootleg Redux Grunge, feature the smiley face logo. The campaign is said to incorporate Nirvana references, including song titles and lyrics and a video clip of “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
Nirvana calls this “oppressive, fraudulent, and malicious,” and believes it has caused them “irreparable injuries,” and “threaten[s] to dilute the value of Nirvana’s licenses with its licensees for clothing products.” They are suing for monetary damages and are looking to prohibit the collection from being marketed. (Forbes)
