HIAN v. LVMH MOET HENNESSY LOUIS VUITTON INC.

CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedJune 28, 2024
Docket2:22-cv-03742
StatusUnknown

This text of HIAN v. LVMH MOET HENNESSY LOUIS VUITTON INC. (HIAN v. LVMH MOET HENNESSY LOUIS VUITTON INC.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
HIAN v. LVMH MOET HENNESSY LOUIS VUITTON INC., (E.D. Pa. 2024).

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA

PAULA HIAN, PAULA HIAN : CIVIL ACTION CREATIONS, LTD : : v. : NO. 22-3742 : LOUIS VUITTON USA INC, LOUIS : VUITTON MALLETIER, OFF WHITE : OPERATING SRL, JOHN AND JANE : DOES I-X, ABC CORPORATION I-X :

MEMORANDUM MURPHY, J. June 28, 2024 In this case, an independent fashion designer accuses a large fashion conglomerate of helping itself to her designs. The independent designer sent cold solicitations to a top executive at the fashion conglomerate with hopes of a collaboration. The solicitations included original clothing designs, lookbooks, and other promotional material meant to highlight the designer’s international acclaim in the fashion industry. Ultimately, the fashion conglomerate did not make time to meet with the designer or decide to work with her. But several years later, she saw marketing campaigns and products by the fashion conglomerate that looked like three of her original designs. After making demands without success, the designer and her company brought this suit against the fashion conglomerate alleging copyright infringement, Lanham Act and unfair competition violations, and unjust enrichment. The fashion conglomerate moves to dismiss each claim as insufficiently stated or preempted. We agree in large part and dismiss most of the claims, but the copyright claims for one design will proceed into discovery. I. Factual Allegations1 Plaintiff Ms. Paula Hian (“Ms. Hian”) is a professional designer of luxury women’s clothing. DI 46 ¶ 17. She’s the president and sole owner of plaintiff Paula Hian Creations, Ltd., (“PHC”) a corporation located in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.2 Ms. Hian “envisions, designs,

creates, and produces all her original styles” and markets and commercializes them through PHC, which is a “wholesale, retail, and online fashion company that markets and sells [Ms.] Hian’s luxury womenswear clothing collection.” Id. ¶¶ 20-21. Ms. Hian’s creative process includes “envisioning and sketching her designs . . . testing and deciding among various materials . . . engaging a factory to knit a variety of swatches of her original fabric designs . . . based on [her] specifications and decisions . . . manufacturing her specific original pattern designs . . . fitting manufactured pieces to models . . . compiling modeled pieces . . . and creating lookbooks for wholesale, retail, and online buyers.” Id. ¶ 29. Defendants Louis Vuitton USA, Inc., Louis Vuitton Malletier, and Off-White Operating SRL are corporate members3 of the non-party French global conglomerate LVMH Moët

Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Inc. Id. ¶¶ 5-8. “LVMH is a multinational corporation and conglomerate, specializing in the development, marketing, and sale of luxury brands and goods” including fashion, cosmetics, fragrances, beverages, jewelry, and watches.4

1 Plaintiffs’ second amended complaint is the operative pleading from which we draw these facts. DI 46.

2 DI 46 ¶¶ 4, 19. We refer to Ms. Hian and PHC together as “plaintiffs.”

3 We refer to the defendants together as “LVMH.”

4 Id. ¶¶ 24-25. Fashion-minded readers may be familiar with some of LVMH’s brands, which include Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Fendi, Givenchy, FENTY, Tiffany & Co., and more. Id. ¶ 25. The dispute began with an e-mail. PHC’s vice president, Ms. Rosemary Brahin, e-mailed Mr. Nicolas Bazire at his LVMH e-mail address in February of 2020 to introduce him to plaintiffs and their designs. Id. ¶ 35. Mr. Bazire is the “head of [d]evelopment and [a]quisitions at LVMH,” a member of the LVMH board of directors, and a member of the LVMH executive

committee. Id. ¶ 36. He has access to all divisions, groups, owned companies, brands, and/or teams within the LVMH conglomerate, including its designers and stylists. Id. It was precisely because of Mr. Bazire’s powerful position at LVMH that Ms. Brahin e-mailed him on behalf of plaintiffs. Id. ¶ 35. She attached to her introductory e-mail a press release about Ms. Hian, Ms. Hian’s fall 2019 lookbook, Ms. Hian’s spring/summer 2019 lookbook, and a promotional video. Id. After following up with Mr. Bazire and his assistant several times via e-mail and phone, Ms. Brahin learned that her e-mail correspondence and attachments had been “given to [Mr.] Bazire’s attention” and had been printed and placed on his desk. Id. ¶¶ 39, 44. Ms. Brahin was encouraged to “keep following up and seeking” a future meeting with Mr. Bazire, who was too busy to meet at that time. Id.

Ms. Brahin and plaintiffs never heard back from Mr. Bazire, but approximately two years later, Ms. Hian observed that “LVMH was marketing its brand, apparel, and accessories using [plaintiffs’] original designs, materials, intellectual property, and copyrights, without [their] permission, without attribution, and without payment therefore.” Id. ¶¶ 35-45, 57. Specifically, plaintiffs allege that LVMH accessed and then copied three of their designs: “Plaque D’egout,” “Ombre,” and “Green Raffia.” Id. ¶¶ 30-32, 48-50. LVMH accessed the Ombre design directly through the materials that Ms. Brahin sent to Mr. Bazire and which were printed and placed on his desk. Id. ¶ 49. And LVMH accessed the Green Raffia and Plaque D’egout designs by further investigating plaintiffs and their designs on the internet after the Ombre design came to its attention. /d. J§ 48, 50. Further, LVMH had access to plaintiffs’ designs through the textile manufacturers they share in France, where it is common practice for textile manufacturers to show luxury brands the other designs they are producing. /d. 54-55. Plaintiffs’ second amended complaint features images comparing their original designs on the left to LVMH’s allegedly infringing designs on the right. See id. § 58. We include these images below.

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LVMH also created “products and marketing concepts that combin[e] elements . . . of [plaintiffs] original designs, materials, intellectual property, and copyrights.” Jd. § 61. Plaintiffs include images of these allegedly infringing designs too, shown below.

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DI 46 ¶¶ 63 – 72. Plaintiffs demanded that LVMH cease and desist the alleged infringement, but LVMH refused. DI 46 ¶ 59. So plaintiffs brought this litigation, asserting copyright infringement claims pursuant to the Copyright Act (Counts I and II), claims under the Lanham Act and state unfair competition laws (Count III), and a claim for unjust enrichment/quantum merit (Count IV). See

generally DI 46. II. LVMH’s Motion to Dismiss LVMH moved to dismiss an earlier version of plaintiffs’ complaint. DI 30 (moving to dismiss plaintiffs’ first amended complaint (DI 7)).

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HIAN v. LVMH MOET HENNESSY LOUIS VUITTON INC., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hian-v-lvmh-moet-hennessy-louis-vuitton-inc-paed-2024.