Christian Louboutin Sees Red

A French court recently decided that a Spanish shoe manufacturer called Zara wasn't infringing a trade mark registration belonging to luxury designer Christian Louboutin for red-soled shoes,   because the registration was vague as it contained no Pantone reference number.  The reason why Louboutin felt the need to sue Zara was probably not unrelated to the fact that, whereas his red-soled shoe retails for some E490, Zara's product sells for E49. The decision attracted considerable publicity, mainly because Louboutin has been trying very hard to monopolise the colour red for shoe soles for some time.

The annexation of colour is a sensitive issue, particularly so in the fashion industry where colour plays such an important role.  A while back Louboutin tried to stop YSL selling a red 'slingback' shoe  in the USA, on the basis that YSL's product infringed Louboutin's  US trade mark registration for what's described as 'a lacquered red sole on footwear'. This case was