Too cute by half
It’s likely a book that has escaped the notice of a lot of readers, but author Tomiko Brown-Nagin recently published a biography entitled, “Civil Rights Queen: Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for Equality.” As Brown-Nagin’s book explains, Motley was a trailblazer in many ways — a graduate of Columbia Law School in the mid-1940s, when few women or minorities obtained professional degrees; a tireless worker on a wide range of cases for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund; and, in 1966, the first AfricanAmerican woman to become a federal judge.
And she had a sense of humor, something never demonstrated better than in a 1977 case that came before her court. It seems that a company named Fashioncraft Products, Inc. began marketing a diaper bag featuring a diagonal stripe on both side panels. The stripe was divided into three bands; the outer bands were green and the inner band was red. Above the stripe, Fashioncraft had silkscreened the word “GUCCHI” while below the stripe was the word “GOO.” If you’re knowledgeable about fashion, you’d recognize the green-andred-stripe as the emblem of Gucci Shops.
And, of course, that’s what Fashioncraft was hoping, too. Unfortunately, Fashioncraft never bothered to get permission from Gucci Shops to sell the “Gucchi Goo” diaper bags.
Gucci, of course, immediately dragged Fashioncraft and its two most prominent retailers — Macy’s and Gimbel’s — into federal court in New York City, screaming “trademark infringement!” Gucci asked the federal court, in the person of Judge Motley, for an order barring Fashioncraft from making the offensive diaper bags, and barring the two retailers from selling them.
The two stores folded immediately. Prior to Judge Motley hearing the case, Macy’s voluntarily removed all of the offending product from its shelves. And Gimbel’s attorneys likewise sent word that their client had no objection to what Gucci was asking for.
So, abandoned by its erstwhile business partners, Fashioncraft was left to defend the “Gucchi Goo” diaper bag alone. And they didn’t find a very sympathetic audience in Judge Motley, who, despite her humble background, as they would say in New York, knew from style.
She wrote that, “For over 20 years, Gucci Shops has promoted its products as a symbol of the highest quality and fashion,” adding that “Glancing at the Gucci catalog” — probably not something Judge Motley kept by her nightstand — “it is evident that the ‘Gucci’ name and stripe figure prominently on many of the items for sale. The two trademarks have been used on tote bags, totes, and dufflebags ranging in price from $89 to $390,” and that one or the other symbols appeared on such diverse items as coats, umbrellas, shoes and ties. (And that was in 1977 dollars $89-$390; you could easily quadruple those figures today.)
Fashioncraft tried to argue that it had distinguished its product by adding the extra letter to “Gucchi,” and the word “Goo,” and by limiting its product line to a diaper bag, but Judge Motley was unimpressed. “The closely resembles an ordinary travel or tote bag,” one of the items that the real Gucci manufactured. “It is not inconceivable that at a glance the ‘GUCCHI’ mark on what appears to be a tote bag could mislead . . . the public into believing that has allowed its mark to be copied or that is somehow associated with . . . the ‘diaper bag.’”
Fashioncraft’s last-ditch argument was that the product was really a kind of parody, intended to poke fun at Gucci. Judge Baker, however, was not amused — not enough to agree with Fashioncraft, anyway. “The fact that the offending product was intended only as a joke is of no consequence,” and that “a well-known registered trademark such as ‘GUCCI’ may still be protected from ridicule.”
For this principle, Judge Motley dug into her tote bag of precedent and came up with a case from the early 1970s when Coca-Cola sued an outfit called Gemini Rising, Inc. Gemini Rising was selling a poster with a red background and white lettering in the same distinctive font as ads that said “Enjoy Coca-Cola” — except that the poster said “Enjoy Cocaine” (which is actually pretty funny if you know where the “Coca” in “Coca-Cola” comes from). Humorous or not, said Judge Motley, such “deceptively similar” products can be barred by court order.
So Judge Motley ordered that the “Gucchi Goo” diaper bag disappear. It was just a minor stop on her judicial career, however. She remained a federal judge for the rest of her life, serving until her death in 2005 at age 84.