Supreme Court denies to hear Vetements trademark dispute over name

Vetements will not be bringing the trademark dispute over its name to the US Supreme Court. Justices have declined to hear the luxury label’s petition to reconsider a low court’s decision to block trademark applications on the grounds of using “foreign equivalents”.

This is just the latest setback in Vetements’ now long-running attempt to trademark its name in the US. In 2021, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) denied several of the brand’s initial registrations due to the generic nature of the word ‘vetements’, which translates to ‘clothing’ in French.

Vetements argued that judging a non-English trademark by its translation was unfair, and didn’t align with the consumer perception of the brand. It further pointed out that different US courts had conflicting views on the issue, and thus opted to bring the dispute to the Supreme Court for clarification.

A US appeals court had agreed with the USPTO’s ruling, determining that enough Americans would understand the word’s French meaning. This view was further backed by a representative for the US government, who urged the Supreme Court to decline Vetements efforts, stating that registering the name in the US would be on par with another country granting rights to the term ‘clothing’.

The Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case enables the lower court ruling to stand, reinforcing the application of the foreign equivalents doctrine for foreign words in US trademark law.