Marc Jacobs and rock band Nirvana reach agreement after years of dispute over smiley logo

Marc Jacobs, artist Robert Fisher and rock band Nirvana have reached a settlement in a lawsuit over the rights to the "smiley" logo, according to a document published July 9 in federal court in California.

The dispute began in 2018, when Nirvana, one of the best-selling American bands of all time, sued Marc Jacobs over the use of a logo in its "Bootleg Redux Grunge" clothing collection. The logo features a crudely drawn face with crossed-out eyes and a tongue-out smile — which Nirvana claims is "nearly identical" to the logo they say was designed by the brand's late lead singer Kurt Cobain.

Marc Jacobs responded in 2019 that the company behind the band, Nirvana LLC, had no enforceable rights to the logo.

In 2020, artist Fisher joined the case. He claimed to have designed the band's smiley face logo in 1991 while working as an art director for the record label Geffen Records. US District Judge John Kronstadt ruled in 2023 that Geffen, not Fisher, would own the logo if Fisher had created it. However, he did not decide whether the logo was created by Cobain or Fisher, instead leaving the case to an arbitrator.

According to the July 9 document, the parties have accepted the mediator's proposals to resolve their dispute. This means that they will finalise a settlement proposal within 21 days. Further details of what the agreement entails are unclear.

This article originally appeared on FashionUnited.NL. Translation via AI and edit by Rachel Douglass.