The GUESS Vs. Gucci trademark legal battle raged on in a Manhattan courtroom on Monday, with the questioning of Paul Vando, former director of men's product at Marc Fisher.
Vando was cross-examined by Darren Saunders of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, to determine if he ever bought Gucci footwear to, as Gucci claims, “copy” their designs for Guess footwear.
His defense mainly stated that it was “absolutely not” his intention to ever trick GUESS customers into thinking their shoes were Gucci. Here are some HIGHlights:
“My job in copying creating footwear for Guess men’s was to create product that appealed to a very specific consumer. I’m very proud of the product that we’ve done”
On why he went shopping at a Gucci store on May 8 2010, a day after his deposition at the plaintiff’s attorney’s office:
“I went to Gucci under the instruction of Marc Fisher. I also went to Ferragamo and Tod’s to purchase styles similar in nature [to any Gucci ones I may have bought]. [I purchased] A cap toe dress shoe, a drive moc and maybe a loafer. I don’t know what [Fisher] wanted them for.”
On designing shoes with an exact copy of Gucci's brown-red-brown stripe:
“We call them color CADs (computer-aided designs). It’s a computer program on which we can play around to find the best color combinations.”
Um, did he even hear the question that was asked?!!
After a bunch of nonsense, Marc Fisher and company continued to deny any copycat allegations and the hearing rolled into the afternoon with even more testimony from Signal Products Inc., the GUESS handbags licensee.
Whew, thankfully they took a break from it all because this is BEYOND exhausting…and we're not even there!!
We're pretty sure we have an idea of how this will turn out but we'd love to know, what do U think will happen?!!
Tags: darren saunders, ferragamo, gucci, guess, manatt phelps and phillips, manhattan, marc fisher, new york, paul vando, signal products, tods
