Pharrell Williams and Louis Vuitton are facing a lawsuit over the launch of a high-end line of “Pocket Socks,” filed by a California company that says it has been using the same name for more than a decade on a similar product.
In a case filed last week in federal court in Los Angeles, Pocket Socks Inc. says the luxury brand's product — a literal sock with a pocket that debuted at Paris Fashion Week last year and retails for a whopping $530 — infringes on existing trademark rights to the name.
“A great deal of attention and publicity has been generated about Louis Vuitton's pocket socks, including the defendants, the press and consumers using the name 'Pocket Socks' for their product, which irreparably harms Pocket's long-standing brand and trademark rights.” Socks,” the company's lawyers. they write in the complaint of June 20.
Louis Vuitton announced in February 2023 that Williams would serve as the company's men's creative director, and he made his front-line debut for the company later that year at Paris Men's Fashion Week.
One of the items apparently released at last year's event was the pocket socks – a pair of knitted socks that feature a pocket adorned with a pearl. The socks gained notoriety in January when Jermaine Dupri was destroyed on social media for wearing them during the Super Bowl halftime show. Although not currently available for purchase, the socks are listed on Louis Vuitton's UK website for £420 — about $530 in US dollars.
Louis Vuitton's new product didn't sit well with Pocket Socks Inc., which says it has been using the exact same name since 2012 for its own line of socks that feature a zippered pocket sewn into each pair. In its lawsuit, the company says it owns several federal trademark registrations for the brand and that the new product clearly infringes those rights.
In a statement announcing the new lawsuit, Pocket Socks Inc. claims that Louis Vuitton's new line “threatens to undermine the hard work and dedication” that went into building the brand: “This huge luxury brand and their designer Pharrell Williams should know better and behave within the law” , said the CEO Evan Papel.
In technical terms, the lawsuit accuses Williams and Louis Vuitton of infringing both the name trademark and so-called “trade dress” — meaning the actual appearance of the product. Selling similar socks under the same name “is likely to confuse or mislead or deceive consumers,” the lawsuit alleges.
As the case moves forward, a possible defense argument by Williams and Louis Vuitton could be that the name Pocket Socks is too “descriptive” to serve as a trademark. Under US trademark law, terms that merely describe the products or services being sold cannot be locked as a proprietary brand.
Neither a representative for Williams nor Louis Vuitton immediately returned requests for comment.
