Helly Hansen Is Suing Off-White For “Intentionally” Adopting Lookalike Logo

While just about every brand from Ikea and Nike to Rimowa wants to adorn their products with the coveted Off-White striped logo (or quotation marks), there is one company that wants no part of the hype that comes with Virgil Abloh’s buzzy label: Helly Hansen. The Norwegian sportswear brand, which maintains a headquarters in Auburn, Washington, filed suit against Off-White this week in federal court in Illinois, alleging that the brand is intentionally infringing the stripe mark that it began using – and has consistently used – in the U.S. more than 40 years ago. According to Helly Hansen’s complaint, Off-White “has adopted a logo that is confusingly similar to Helly Hansen’s HH Stripe Logo,” and is using that logo on goods that are “the same and/or similar to the goods/services offered by Helly Hansen under its HH Stripe Logo.” Far from merely a coincidence, Hansen claims that Off-White “adopted the infringing [trademark] with knowledge of, and the intent … to create a false suggestion of an affiliation or connection between [Off-White] and Helly Hansen, where none exists,” and/or “to trade off the goodwill of Helly Hansen and its HH Stripe [mark],” which is protected by a federally registered trademark (no. 1,454,335) for “parallel striping of white and another contrasting color that appears on the shoulder and sleeve of shirts and on the outer seam of the pants.” Read more at The Fashion Law.