Los Angeles Intellectual Property Trademark Attorney Blog

Los Angeles, CA – Textile/Garment copyright attorneys sought protection for United Fabrics’ copyrighted fabric/textile designs by filing a copyright infringement lawsuit in Los Angeles Federal District Court to prevent the copying of its copyrighted fabric/textile designs by others. Plaintiff alleges that two of its copyrighted designs are being copied. The first design, titled SUZETTE, was received by assignment and the spatially arranged floral elements were converted for printing on textiles. After plaintiff applied for and received copyright registration for this first design with the U.S. Copyright Office, it discovered that Macy’s was selling garments with the Plaintiff’s alleged copyrighted design.

Plaintiff was also the assignee of all rights in another floral design artwork, which United Fabric titled as “Brenda.” Once again plaintiff received a copyright registration from the U.S. Copyright Office and provided samples of the fabric to defendant R&M Richards, Inc. Defendant, in turn, allegedly copied the design and had the fabric/textile printed elsewhere and sold garments bearing the copyrighted design to Macy’s. Defendant Swat allegedly did not order any fabric from Plaintiff, but instead copied the design through third parties and manufactured and sold garments to various retailers. The complaint alleges a cause of action for copyright infringement for each of the copyrighted fabric designs. It also alleges a cause of action for vicarious and/or contributory copyright infringement. Finally, a breach of contract claim is alleged against R&M Richards because it had agreed that it was receiving Plaintiff’s copyrighted designs with the clear understanding and agreement that they were proprietary to Plaintiff, and that it would place any orders for the fabrics through the Plaintiff. The case is titled United Fabrics International, Inc. v. Macy’s, Inc., CV08-02954 (C.D. Cal 2008).