The Use of the Patronymic after a brand is sold. The Fiorucci case.

Recently the Italian Supreme Court issued an interesting ruling on the use of a patronymic as a trade mark. As known such use  can have important consequences the design and fashion industry. Many brands in this  industry are identified with the founder's name and about just remember brands like Calvin Klein, Giorgio Armani, Valentino and in the latter case has seen the fashion house founder quit the capital at the end of the 90 .
However it has often happened that the use of the patronymic by the founder of the company after the sale of his brand was considered lawful by the Italian Courts as it was considered used in a purely descriptive manner of the designer and not distinctively.
Therefore, after the sale of the Fiorucci brand occurred in 1900 by Elio Fiorucci to the Japanese company Edwin International Group it seemed not disputed that the creation of a new brand called Love Therapy by Elio Fiorucci was lawful as the reference to Mr. Fiorucci’s name .
With this judgment, the Supreme Court ruled that the use of the Patronymic by the founder, after the sale of the original trademark would create an entanglement interfering  with the use of the famous original trademark  sold.
It remains to understand how we can talk about slavish imitation when the launch of the project “Love Therapy by Elio Fiorucci's” occurred  over 13 years after the sale of the original Fiorucci Brand to Edwin International Group.