Yves Saint Laurent filed a lawsuit against its founder Jeanine Heller after manufacturing and selling shirts and sweatshirts with the label, "Ain't Laurent Without Yves." And currently, the company is trying to settle the case filed against the parody T-shirt company, "What About Yves."
According to Complex, the Parisian label has finally settled the lawsuit. The alleged infringement started after Heller's parody brand began to produce graphic shirts that are labelled with the slogan "Ain't Laurent Without Yves." This is somewhat a response to Heidi Slimane's decision to drop "Yves" from the label's name.
The Fashion Law also noted that YSL even reached out to Heller for a couple of times and sent her a number of letters alerting her of such intellectual property charges. The complaint also stated that after a handful of letters that YSL sent Heller, the matter went unanswered, Heller finally raised the notion to the design house counsel, denied her faults, and offered to sell her Ain't Laurent Without Yves trademark to them.
Saint Laurent later on decided to sue Heller for trademark infringement, trademark dilution, false designation of origin and unfair competition. But in spite of the lawsuit filed at Heller, she kept on selling the designs to retailers, including the Paris boutique Colette, which also denied Saint Laurent's request to stop selling the designs.
But this is not the first time that Heller was accused of infringing. Chanel also complained of a double C-printed T-shirt that she was selling. But although the case is still being settled in the court, she currently still retails the double C print - along with parodies of the Dior, Hermes and LVMH logos, as mentioned in Vogue UK.
For now, the "Ain't Laurent Without Yves" tees have been removed from Jeanine Heller's website. But then, there is still no word on what the monetary component of the settlement is for Heller and YSL.
