![]() Add to that, excerpts from glossy Rizzoli coffee table books and examples of magazine editorials featuring Gucci’s various uses of the horsebit mark – not just on footwear but on handbags, belts, and jewelry, as well. That article was joined by more recent ones from the likes of Women’s Wear Daily and InStyle, with specific references to the “instant recognizably” of Gucci products, thanks to “their signature horsebit ornamentation.”Īlongside a still shot of Jonah Hill in the Wolf of Wall Street holding a Gucci loafer, complete with a horsebit ornament, was an image of Sophia Loren in the 1970 film La Maglie del Prete, wearing the horsebit loafers. There was an article from the Associated Press, dated June 19, 1980, dissecting the widespread copying of all things Gucci, including the horsebit. Those 200-plus pages included Gucci seasonal ad campaigns that featured horsebit-affixed loafers. Attached to their memorandum was a voluminous stack of evidence, 250 pages of evidence filled with examples that showed, according to the memo, that the horsebit mark was more than merely a decorative element on the brand’s shoes, and was, instead, a source-identifying symbol. Calvaruso and Gaven argued that the horsebit mark had, in fact, acquired the necessary distinctiveness to “serve as a source identifier when applied to the goods listed in the application, namely footwear.” But they did not stop there. In a 10-page memorandum in support of Gucci’s application, Ms. Calvaruso and Amy Gaven – two highly-regarded intellectual property specialists at the then-178-year old general practice firm, Kelley Drye, who were acting as outside counsel for the brand – “respectfully challenged” Ms. Six months after being handed an initial loss, Gucci responded to the USPTO’s refusal. In short: the horsebit was “a decorative element on shoes.” It was not, in the trademark examining attorney’s mind, a symbol that served to indicate the source of the shoes goods. In the summer of 2013, a few months after Gucci’s legal team filed its trademark application for registration for the horsebit, the USPTO’s examiner Saima Makhdoom, Esq issued a preliminary refusal, asserting that the design was just that … a “merely ornamental” design. However, despite such longstanding use by Gucci, the USPTO was not quick to register the horsebit mark. According to the application, which sought to register a “three-dimensional horsebit design mark” for use on footwear, Gucci had been using the horsebit on shoes since 1953. ![]() Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) in 2013. With the staying power of the horsebit in mind, Gucci’s American arm filed an application to federally register the horsebit as a trademark with the U.S. (Although there is some debate, at least according to Forever 21, as to whether the striped marks actually function as trademarks as opposed to decorative design elements). Guccio Gucci had started using the horsebit design on his brand’s leather goods “after working at The Savoy, in London, where he’d been inspired by the aesthetic of the English racing set.” In the time since he and his son first added the symbol – as well as the house’s interlocking “G”, its stylized name, and its red and green, and red and blue striped patterns – to the brand’s wares, these insignia have simultaneously come to distinguish Gucci’s products from those of others and to lure in consumers that want a piece of the brand’s reputation for luxury, quality, and fashionability. ![]() How do you explain the enduring influence of the otherwise simple shoe? “The difference is the horsebit,” Ellen Goldstein, professor of accessories design at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, told AdWeek a few years ago. Gucci’s New York trip and the subsequent introduction of Gucci’s horse bit loafers, and the brand’s staple footwear offering has enjoyed what fashion critics and analysts can unanimously agree is “remarkable longevity.” The finishing touch? Affixed to each shoe’s upper was a golden-hued horsebit, a staple Gucci symbol. Gucci returned to Gucci’s headquarters in Italy, he set out to add a leather loafer to the house’s lineup of goods. ![]() During his visit, the eldest son in the Gucci family – who had just been appointed chairman of the family leather goods business following his father, Gucci founder Guccio Gucci’s death – noticed just how many American men were wearing simply crafted, slip-on loafers. ![]()
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