British sports fashion label Fred Perry has settled legal proceedings brought against fashion giant Arcadia Group over trademark infringement, it has been announced.
Arcadia, owned by British entrepreneur Sir Philip Green, accepted it had infringed Fred Perry‘s trademark rights by featuring a small laurel wreath embroidered on a jumper available in Topshop, which Fred Perry claimed bore a strong resemblance to its longstanding logo.
Roy Crozier, Joint Head of Intellectual Property at Clarke Willmott stated, “This was one of the clearest cases of trade mark infringement I have come across in the fashion industry.”
Arcadia, which owns the Topshop and Topman brands as well as Miss Selfridge, Dorothy Perkins and a host of others, was forced to pay damages as part of the settlement as well as Fred Perry‘s legal costs while agreeing not to sell the infringing jumper from now on.
A statement from Fred Perry noted: “We will not hesitate to enforce our intellectual property rights when they are infringed.
“Fred Perry would like to thank those loyal customers who brought this matter to its attention, and confirms that it will continue to take action to enforce its global intellectual property rights both against other brands who seek to trade off its designs and reputation and those who trade in counterfeit products.”
