Victoria’s Secret challenges ‘PINK’ trademark

Victoria's Secret has been filling up women closets with lingerie, pajamas and cosmetics for many years, but now it trying to protect its PINK collection by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for the registration to "The Pink Store."

Currently, thepinkstore.com is owned by Rebekah Doolittle, where it sells a variety of pink-colored products like dog accessories, cuff links and handbags, the Omaha World-Herald reported. Doolittle's business venture began in 2011, about four years after Victoria's Secret launched the PINK line, but she contends that her e-commerce site is completely different than the major retailer.

On Valentine's Day, Doolittle posted a poem on The Pink Store's Facebook page, asking Victoria's Secret to "make this mess go away" because "going after our trademark is rude and unkind."

Robert Denicola, intellectual property professor law at the University of Nebraska College of Law, explained to the World-Herald that if all efforts fail for Doolittle, she wouldn't have to close thepinkstore.com, she would just lose the registration trademark.

"Even if their trademark is canceled that doesn't mean they have to stop using the name," he said.

The downside of losing such protections would hinder the effort to obtain similar trademark registration within the United States and beyond. It is unclear where the case will go, but Doolittle is competing against a retailer that makes about $1.5 billion per year on "Pink Nation."

These type of intellectual property cases happen between startups and big companies all the time. Business owners who want to have a strong legal case against these financially stable firms can leverage legal counsel. Attorneys for small business are always available to provide advice for these types of scenarios. 

Categorised in: Intellectual Property Law

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