In a 2019 interview released to the Wall Street Journal, Michele Di Pierro, the founder of Supreme Italia, stated: “Our success is not based on the Box Logo. The secret lies in the quality of the products and in making our articles accessible to a young clientele. When I registered the brand in Italy, I did so in good faith. James Jebbia was not known to us, and he didn’t even have a store in our country, so I didn’t know of Supreme New York’s existence. “. However, justice does not think so.
After years and years of struggle, the legal war on trademarks ended in favor of the American brand. As reported by Bloomberg, Michele Di Pierro and his son Marcello were found guilty of fraud by the court of England. They registered the “Supreme Italia” and “Supreme Spain” brands, unfairly exploiting the reputation of the streetwear giant founded in New York in 1994.
The two must serve respectively 8 and 3 years in prison for having “plagiarized the identity of Supreme with brazen, offensive and dishonest actions and methods”. They will also have to pay Supreme 7.5 million pounds, which corresponds to just over 8.7 million euros. The sentence was handed down by the English judge Martin Beddoe in London. Court papers revealed shortly after that the London firm had only £ 300 in its accounts.
Finally, the International Brand Firm Ltd., will have to pay a fine of $ 10.4 million for contributing to the crime. This is the English holding that took care of the trademark in the countries where James Jebbia had not registered his brand.
At the moment, neither Supreme nor VF Corp have commented on the outcome of the trial, which, however, represents the first personal conviction. We remind you that on December 3, the registration of the trademark of the Box Logo was made official in the European Union. But only last week’s ruling seems to have clarified the matter once and for all.
