Nirvana’s legal battle with designer Marc Jacobs over the use of the band’s smiley face logo has taken a new twist.
Jacobs’s lawyers have filed a countersuit, claiming that the band’s trademark registration of the logo is invalid. The Hollywood Reporter says Jacobs filed the suit after Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic each testified they didn’t know who created the logo.
The suit states, “The apparent absence of any living person with first-hand knowledge of the creation of the allegedly copyrighted work in question, coupled with numerous other deficiencies in the 166 Registration that is the basis for Nirvana’s infringement claim, are the basis for the counterclaim asserted.”
Nirvana’s company sued Jacobs earlier this year over a T-shirt that featured an image very similar to the band’s smiley face logo.
