Battle of the Red Soles

French shoe designer, Christian Louboutin, lost a lawsuit against Yves Saint Laurent for adding a red sole to the bottom of its 2011 shoe collection.  Louboutin is suing YSL over the its latest shoe collection stating that the red soles are "virtually identical" to his signature red soles which he had trademarked in 2008.

French shoe designer, Christian Louboutin, pictured with some of his famous red soled shoes

A federal judge denied Louboutin's request for a preliminary injunction.  Judge Victor Marrero dismissed the argument ruling that "Louboutin's claim to the color red is without some limitation, overly broad and inconsistent with the scheme of trademark registration established by the Lanham Act"


There are four particular shoes in the YSL 2011 collection that are all red and happen to have red soles: the Tribute, Tribtoo, Palais, and Wood Stock.

YSL Tribute

YSL Palais

YSL Tribtoo

YSL Woodstock

Anthony Dreyer, professor of trademark law at Fordham Law School stated "Louboutin will have to show that customers or the public have been confused by Yves Saint Laurent's replication of it."  Dreyer further states that few customers will go into Neiman Marcus in search of Louboutins and mistakenly drop $1,125 on a pair of Yves Saint Laurent's pumps.

What do you think? Do you think Yves Saint Laurent's red soles replication will cause confusion among consumers?