Japanese fashion brand ISSEY MIYAKE announced on June 13 that it is filing a Petition for a provisional injunction against a Japanese rival shop, BARCOS, for a handbag it claims is too similar in design to its own BAO BAO ISSEY MIYAKE. Some of the handbags made by both are constructed with triangular tiles on their pleated surfaces. The bags can bend and conform to contents along the pleats between tiles, making a variety of geometric effects.
ISSEY MIYAKE, a long-established company, stated that is had found advertisement of disturbingly similar BARCOS models (three products in the Hanaa-fu line) in January 2019 and approached BARCOS to seek removal of the products. As BARCOS refused the demands, ISSEY MIYAKE moved to claim infringement under the Unfair Competition Prevention Act and seek a temporary injunction against sale and importation of the allegedly inappropriate Hanaa-fu products. In using the Unfair Competition Prevention Act, it seems that ISSEY MIYAKE is not claiming a design or copyright infringement per se, but simply an unfair similarity or copying of its high-end products.
ISSEY MIYAKE’s position is that “healthy competition . . . is necessary. However, we cannot overlook designs we think may make customers mistakenly think, ‘This is an ISSEY MIYAKE product’ . . .” BARCOS declined to comment, saying it had not yet received formal documents on the issue.
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Taro Yaguchi
Sources
WWD Japan, “イッセイ ミヤケが「バオ バオ」に類似したバッグの販売等を差し止める仮処分を申し立て [ISSEY MIYAKE files for temporary injunction to halt sale, etc. of bags similar to BAO BAO line],” June 14, 2019, accessed June
Images:
BAO BAO ISSEY MIYAKE Bags, accessed June 27, 2019.
BARCOS Hanaa-fu Bag, accessed June 27, 2019.
