Kate Spade parent company Fifth & Pacific (NYSE: FNP) announced today that the court has issued a ruling in its favor over a trademark dispute involving the Kate Spade Saturday name.
The company was in a legal dispute with independent retailer Saturdays Surf NYC in New York, which had informed the company that it felt the Kate Spade Saturday name was too close to its own and would make consumers confused. Kate Spade took the issue to federal court, asserting that it was not infringing on the independent retailer’s trademark and the company said the judge issued a ruling Monday.
“We are happy to announce that the court ruled in our favor. The court's findings align exactly with what we believe—that both companies and brands can peacefully co-exist in the market,” Fifth & Pacific said in a statement.
The move comes amid Kate Spade Saturday's debut of shoppable store windows—minus the traditional store—in Manhattan this summer. The windows allow shoppers to touch screens, order merchandise on their smartphones, and have it delivered to them within an hour.
The screens, which are in key shopping areas of New York City, including SoHo and the Lower East Side through next month, measure about 9 feet across and 2 feet high and appear on the front windows of closed stores. Shoppers touch the screens to order and can have Kate Space Saturday products delivered to them within an hour via courier. Couriers will accept payment through PayPal Here, a mobile payment service developed by PayPal parent company eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY).
Fifth & Pacific chief executive William McComb told Reuters that the “wall as a mall” concept for Kate Spade Saturday means that, for now at least, Kate Spade Saturday will not open any physical stores. But the shoppable window concept will also be used with other brands such as Kate Spade New York and Juicy Couture, allowing the company to “produce more from our physical space.”
An actual brick and mortar Kate Spade Saturday flagship shop opened in March 2013 in Tokyo's Omotesando neighborhood along with an e-commerce site (saturday.jp). In the United States, the brand's merchandise is available only online at Saturday.com, a site that was launched in Spring 2013
The company was in a legal dispute with independent retailer Saturdays Surf NYC in New York, which had informed the company that it felt the Kate Spade Saturday name was too close to its own and would make consumers confused. Kate Spade took the issue to federal court, asserting that it was not infringing on the independent retailer’s trademark and the company said the judge issued a ruling Monday.
“We are happy to announce that the court ruled in our favor. The court's findings align exactly with what we believe—that both companies and brands can peacefully co-exist in the market,” Fifth & Pacific said in a statement.
The move comes amid Kate Spade Saturday's debut of shoppable store windows—minus the traditional store—in Manhattan this summer. The windows allow shoppers to touch screens, order merchandise on their smartphones, and have it delivered to them within an hour.
The screens, which are in key shopping areas of New York City, including SoHo and the Lower East Side through next month, measure about 9 feet across and 2 feet high and appear on the front windows of closed stores. Shoppers touch the screens to order and can have Kate Space Saturday products delivered to them within an hour via courier. Couriers will accept payment through PayPal Here, a mobile payment service developed by PayPal parent company eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY).
Fifth & Pacific chief executive William McComb told Reuters that the “wall as a mall” concept for Kate Spade Saturday means that, for now at least, Kate Spade Saturday will not open any physical stores. But the shoppable window concept will also be used with other brands such as Kate Spade New York and Juicy Couture, allowing the company to “produce more from our physical space.”
An actual brick and mortar Kate Spade Saturday flagship shop opened in March 2013 in Tokyo's Omotesando neighborhood along with an e-commerce site (saturday.jp). In the United States, the brand's merchandise is available only online at Saturday.com, a site that was launched in Spring 2013
0 comments:
Post a Comment