us.louisvuitton.com

Louis Vuitton didn’t appreciate the undesired homage paid by a South Korean fried chicken shop recently, and instead decided to drag the eatery to court over trademark infringement.

The fried chicken shop, called ‘LOUISVUI TONDAK’, has been served a hefty fine for using the brand’s name and even playing around with the fashion label’s logo. According to Louis Vuitton, the chicken shop infringed the brand’s “originality and value” by using it inappropriately.

Although the name is spaced differently, it is easily recognisable, in effect damaging the brand’s name.

The brand stood against the chicken shop and already won the district court ruling in Seoul this week, the Korea Times reported. Apart from using the name, the chicken shop used brand’s logo on tissues and packaging of the food boxes serving chicken.

Not only has the shop been banned from using its logo on its napkins and food wrappers, which had an uncanny resemblance to the original LV logo, a Seoul district court has slapped a fine of $14.5 million on the eatery.

koreaboo.com

While the chicken shop changed its name slightly, there was not enough difference for it to support its claims. The second proposed name ‘chaLOUISVUI TONDAK’ was certainly different from the first one, which was already banned by the court. But, the court felt that this new name too was not sufficiently different.

The court maintained: “Although the owner changed the name with different spacing, the two names sounded almost the same.”