A few days ago, ASAT Outdoors LLC, a clothing and fashion company based in Stevensville, Montana, sued Supreme Chapter 4 Corp. before a federal court in New York for violating the copyright of its camouflage press. In this regard, in fact, ASAT has accused Supreme of having "reproduced and exposed to the public without any authorization" its mimetic design, protected by copyright, using it as a print on a series of jackets, sweaters, cargo trousers and hats offered for sale on websites and in stores.
The Montana-based clothing company has claimed that it has never licensed the design to Supreme, nor has it given it permission or consent to use or sell the "camo" on its clothing, such as, for example, "work" jackets of 218 dollars and cargo trousers of 145 dollars.
ASAT also accused Supreme of intentionally and deliberately "violating its exclusive right, as the copyright owner, to reproduce, copy, display and make derivative works - that is, works based on or derived from an existing copyrighted work - of the protected camouflage print" in total violation of federal copyright laws.
In this regard, ASAT has asked the court to order Supreme to pay compensation for all damages, including but not limited to any profit that Supreme itself has obtained from the unlawful use of camo graphics or, alternatively, depending on what is the greater amount, "to pay compensation for legal damages up to $150,000 for each work infringed in the case of intentional infringement of the design”.
From the analysis of the above case, what is particularly interesting is that ASAT, in protecting its intellectual property right, has acted to claim its ownership over the design and not over the trademark.
This strategy seems curious because the Montana company would have had all the powers to demonstrate that consumers connect its specific camouflage print - a print that looks as if it could be somehow distinctive with respect to other types of camouflage on the market - with ASAT Outdoors LLC.
On that basis, in fact, and in view of its wide commercial footprint (consider the sale of its products to giants such as Walmart and Black Ovis) could have acted to ascertain the counterfeiting of its trademark.
In March 2018, Jordan Outdoor Enterprises ("JOE") sued Kanye West's Yeezy LLC before a federal court in Georgia for using some of its copyrighted camouflage prints on a number of Yeezy Season 5 garments and accessories. However, in this case the dispute was resolved in September 2018 after Yeezy and JOE reached "a separate agreement to resolve the complaints and related legal costs".