Hermes, the maker of the famous Birkin bag, is bringing a trademark, trade dress and unfair competition lawsuit in federal district court against a New York store for selling a replica Birkin bag made of rubber rather than leather. The owner claims it's a satire on the hideously expensive Birkin; Hermes isn't amused.
Here's Hermes's argument:
[W]hat aggrieves Hermès lawyers most is the attempt to convey the gestalt of a Birkin or Kelly bag, which they consider a violation of the company's intellectual property. . . . [T]he widespread celebrity the bags have attained constitutes a trademark in itself. "If everyone on Madison Avenue has a fake Kelly or Birkin, it dilutes the exclusiveness of the brand," he said.
I leave it for others to evaluate the merits of this argument. Read the New York Times article here
Of course, anybody who has been to New York's Chinatown district, or similar places around the world, knows that knockoff bags are everywhere: you can buy nearly indistinguishable Hermes, Kate Spade, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, etc. bags at a fraction of the genuine cost. By the very nature of the object being copied, bag-design infringement is not as widespread as copyright infringement, but, like pattern piracy, it's there and often very, very mainstream. Some parties may see intellectual property as property; it's clear, though, that many people from all walks of life think quite differently, and act accordingly.