Put on Your Red Shoes and Dance the Blues

The Friday File: Can you trademark a color? Shoe manufacturer Christian Louboutin sued Yves St. Laurent for infringement stating that YSLs use of red colored soles in shades of red close to Louboutins’ violated its trademark won in ‘08. Despite the trademark, a judge has preliminarily ruled in favor of YSL saying that “color serves ornamental and aesthetic functions vital to robust competition” which is quite different than pink fiberglass.