YOON&YANG

Korean Client Prevails in Lawsuit on Seagull Pattern between Korean and Japanese clothing firms

  • Recent Matters
  • 2010.09.24

The court ruled in favor of a Korean clothing maker in a legal dispute between a Korean clothing firm and a Japanese jean maker over the copyright of the “seagull pattern” decorating back pockets of the famous Evisu brand jeans. 

On August 26, 2010, the Seoul High Court ruled against the plaintiff in a lawsuit to claim for the prevention of copyright infringements filed by a Japanese jean maker, Evisu, against a Korean firm, Worlvi Trading Co., Ltd. (Yoon & Yang LLC was the counsel for Worlvi Trading).

The court ruled that “Evisu Japan can not claim its copyright in Korea because the originality cannot be recognized for the pattern of English letters EVIS under the shape of the Japanese folk God Evisu and the M shaped design inserted between the hip parts and the knee parts of the jeans.”

The intellectual property rights team of Yoon & Yang explained that Evisu Japan claimed an internationally-acknowledged copyright over the relevant trademark but the court ruled that the pattern was not an original copyrighted work.  

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