Guess was ordered by a federal judge Monday to fork over $4.66 million to Gucci for copying the Italian luxury brand's iconic interlinked G's logo on four designs, but the folks at Gucci would have liked more cash than that.

They’ll have to make do with what they got because U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin told Guess that it didn’t have to pay Gucci any more than that for “damages reflecting lost sales or harm to its brand,” Reuters reports, although Guess was also banned from making any Gucci knock-offs.

The suit had Gucci criticizing Guess for “trying to ‘Gucci-ize’ its product line by selling wallets, belts, shoes and other items whose designs copied or mimicked its own.”

New York magazine reports that Gucci had wanted more than $120 million in restitution, “which suggests they might try to pursue the case further.”

Gucci hadn’t released any comment early Monday afternoon, New York notes, but Guess CEO Paul Marciano did release a comment “that he wished the case could have been resolved between the two companies instead of in court.”Continue reading...

Pepsi Canada took a big risk back in 1976 when it challenged consumers to a blind taste test, hoping that they’d not only top rival Coke but also that some of those folks who generally purchased Coca-Cola would surprise themselves and choose Pepsi.

Well, it worked then and the company hopes that it will keep on working this summer. PepsiCo Beverages Canada has announced that it is touring the nation this summer to administer the test to 1.5 million consumers at more than 1,000 events across the land.

With all this energy being thrown into it, Pepsi has gone ahead and renamed the promotion the Pepsi Ultimate Taste Challenge, which makes one wonder how they can possibly top that in the future.

Since 1976, the company has given nine million taste tests and this summer’s taste tests will feature the use of new technology, more than a thousand local events, and tricked-out semi-trailer crossing the country.Continue reading...

Earlier this year, Wendy's dethroned Burger King to become America's second-largest burger chain, based on the chains' 2011 U.S. sales figures, for the first time. But the pinnacle (well, sub-pinnacle, as both are way beneath McDonald's) must be slippery, because Wendy's foothold at the top already appears to be weakening.

For Wendy's, the first quarter was a big disappointment and produced only a 2-percent revenue increase compared with a year ago, to $593 million, forcing the chain to lower its 2012 outlook. But for the ever-hungry Burger King, first-quarter sales rose by more than 3 percent, to $570 million.

Both burger icons tried some tweaks that were new and different during the period. Burger King's innovations seem to be working out better for now.Continue reading...

Since the 1850s, two venerable brands associated with the famous British trench coat, Aquascutum and Burberry, have managed to keep pace. But now "A" has given way to "B": Aquascutum, whose clothing was once worn by the likes of Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher, has filed for bankruptcy, even as Burberry's star continues to rise.

At one time, Aquascutum — the name was derived from the Latin words for "water shield" — was a storied brand. While the company's claim that it invented the trench coat is disputed by Burberry, Aquascutum coats clothed British soldiers in the trenches of the Crimean war and World War I. Explorer Edmund Hillary and sherpa Tenzing Norgay sported Aquascutum fabrics during their trek up Mt. Everest in 1953. The 1994 and 1996 British Olympic teams wore uniforms made by the company. King Edward VII, as well as actors Humphrey Bogart, Greta Garbo, Cary Grant, Sophia Loren, and Peter Sellers, all wore its clothing, according to Aquascutum.

But that was in bygone days. Of late, the brand simply could not be competitive. According to a company statement, "The senior management team have worked tirelessly to develop and build the Aquascutum brand. The challenging conditions in the U.K., however, have unfortunately meant that the team have been unable to successfully turn the business around which has ultimately resulted in its administration." (Administration is the British form of bankruptcy.)Continue reading...

You want to send somebody some lovely-looking fresh-cut fruit arrangements? No problem! There are a few companies that can help you out. Two of them aren’t just competing in the marketplace. They’ve also got a battle going in the courtroom.

Toward the beginning of last year, 1-800-Flowers.com got into "creating and delivering fresh-cut fruit arrangements,” a business that Edible Arrangements was already well-established in with its “flower-shaped-melon-on-a-stick bouquets,” according to Reuters.

1-800-Flowers had some logos made up for their new brand extension and went ahead and registered them as trademarks. But two days later, Edible Arrangements filed a complaint that said the logos were too similar to their marks.

Now 1-800-Flowers is hoping a judge can make a judgment on the logos, according to the site, and pointed out in its own complaint that the term “bouquet of fruits” has been used by others in the past 20 years without confusion.

Christopher Buccafusco, an assistant professor at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, told Reuters that copyright of such things often depends on its originality, so “if Rodin carved a sculpture out of watermelon, it would be just as protected as one made out of marble.”Continue reading...

Guess is celebrating its 30th anniversary this month with the return of Claudia Schiffer in a new campaign (at right). But there's one front on which the brand's iconic model can't help out.

The American denim giant, started by the French-born Marciano brothers (Paul and Maurice, now co-chairmen and -CEOs) in 1982, is tangling in court with a sexy Italian: Gucci.

The brands are squaring off in a battle that’s been raging between them for years. The way Gucci lawyer Louis Ederer sees it, Guess is working a “massive, complicated scheme to knock off Gucci’s best-known and iconic designs," according to Bloomberg. Guess, as you might guess, begs to differ.

The claim is that Guess has infringed on four Gucci trademarks, the Huffington Post notes: “the green and red stripe; the interlocking "G" pattern; the square ‘G’ and the brand name's delicate script font.” And this infringement didn’t just occur on one or two products, the suit claims. It was on, Gucci claims, $221 million worth of products.Continue reading...

From "Everyday low prices" to "Anytime, anywhere."

That appears to be what's in store for the evolution of Walmart's brand-defining slogan. Soon, the latter motto will be the marketing tagline for Walmart.com, unit President Joel Anderson told Bloomberg. And so maybe, given the rising importance of e-commerce to the giant of bricks and mortar, it could stand for the whole brand someday.

The mega-retailer is plumb in the middle of a huge transition in e-tailing, just as it has spent the last few years tacking back and forth between its traditional everyday-low-prices positioning and the attraction of providing less clutter and more "sophistication" for upscale consumers. In the case of Walmart.com, the spur — of course — is Amazon.com.Continue reading...

The Olympic creed states that “the most important thing … is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle.”

Well, that’s just fine for the athletes, but for Nike and Adidas, they are looking not just to fight well, but to conquer.

Business Review Europe reports that “relations between the sportswear giants (are) even more frosty than usual over their access to leading Olympic stars including Paula Radcliffe, Mo Farah and Mark Cavendish.”

The problem stems from the fact that Adidas is an official London 2012 sponsor, and doesn’t want to be giving Nike any kind of free publicity.

In the past, there has been a gentleman’s agreement made between the two sides to allow athletes to get their medals with their own sponsors’ shoes on their feet, but the growing acrimony has kept that from happening this time around.Continue reading...