经济学人下载:红底鞋之争

Lay off my red-soled shoes
离我的红底鞋远点！

Can a colour be a trademark?
单一的颜色也能成为注册商标吗？

Aug 20th 2011 | from the print edition

APPEARING on “So You Think You Can Dance”, an American TV show, Jennifer Lopez starts her song “Louboutins” by lying sulkily in sheets of red silk on a bed in a giant sparkly shoe and making a phone call. “Hello, Santa,” she says, batting her eyelashes, “I would like a shiny new pair of Louboutin shoes. You know, the ones with the high heels and red bottoms.”

天后珍妮佛洛佩兹以一曲“Louboutins”亮相电视节目《舞林争霸》，开唱前， 台上一只巨大的闪闪发光的高跟鞋里放着一张床，床上铺着红丝绸，珍妮佛洛佩兹就气呼呼地躺在丝绸之上打电话：“喂，是圣诞老人嘛”她边说边眨了眨眼睛，“人家想要一双Louboutin的鞋子。你知道的，就是跟高高的，底红红的那种”。

In the 20 years since Christian Louboutin made his first pair of ladies’ shoes with shiny red-lacquered soles, his vertiginously heeled, sexy, colourful and nearly unwearable creations have become an object of desire for celebrities like Ms Lopez, Angelina Jolie and Madonna, who even lets her daughter Lourdes wear a metal-studded number. Today the puckish Frenchman is the biggest star in high-fashion shoe design, selling about 240,000 pairs a year in America at prices ranging from $395 for espadrilles to as much as $6,000 for a “super-platform” pump covered in crystals. The revenue of his company, Louboutin, is forecast at $135m this year.

20年前，Christian Louboutin设计出了第一双漆皮红底的高跟鞋。他的设计鞋跟多变，性感撩人，色彩艳丽，但几乎是没法穿着行走的，不过洛佩兹，安吉丽娜朱莉，麦当娜等一干名流还是趋之若鹜，麦当娜甚至还为女儿洛德斯买了一双带铆钉的Louboutin。今天，这个乖戾的法国男人已经是高级时装界炙手可热的大人物。Louboutin在美国市场一年卖出了24万双鞋，不管是395美元一双的帆布草编鞋，还是价值6000美元镶满水晶的浅口高跟鞋都受到热烈追捧，预计Louboutin公司今年的营业额将达到1,34亿美元左右。

Yet all this could be at risk, says Louboutin’s lawyer, if Yves Saint Laurent (YSL), another fashion firm, continues to gain the upper hand in a legal dispute between the two companies. On August 10th a district court in New York refused to grant a preliminary injunction stopping YSL from selling shoes with a red sole that Louboutin says infringe its trademark. The judge did not believe that a designer could trademark a colour. He asked both parties to appear again in court on August 19th to decide how to proceed with the case.

不过Louboutin 的律师表示，如果伊夫圣罗兰时装公司在双方法律纠纷中继续占上风的话，Louboutin的好景可能不长了。8月10日纽约区法庭拒绝下达初步处罚令，禁止伊夫圣罗兰销售红底鞋，因为Louboutin称其商标侵权。法官认为设计师不能把某种颜色当成一个商标。他通知被告原告双方于8月19日再次出庭，到时再判定这个案子。

“We don’t like it,” says Harley Lewin of McCarter & English, an American law firm which is representing Louboutin. The judge has overreached, according to Mr Lewin, by making this a case about the justification of Louboutin’s trademark rather than a ruling on a request for a temporary injunction prohibiting the sale of red-soled YSL shoes. He intends to appeal against the decision.

美国McCarter & English律师事务所负责代理Louboutin,事务所的律师Harley Lewin说：“对审判结果我们感到很失望”。他还表示法官判定这个案子仅仅围绕在Louboutin商标的合法性上，对于向伊夫圣罗兰下达临时处分命令，禁止其销售红底鞋的请求根本不予受理。他表示会对这个审判结果提起上诉。