"Girl, hold my earrings," said San Francisco-based Levi's who filed a lawsuit in federal court in San Francisco last week against Dolce & Gabbana. It seems, according to SF Weekly, the Italian house breached a 1998 settlement agreement between the two companies. Over what? Over pocket stitching. D&G has allegedly copied Levi's "double-arch stitching design and ribbon tab on the back pocket."
SF Weekly reports:
Levis had first confronted D&G about using the tab on their back pocket seam (a la Levi's red tab) in 1997. At that time, the two companies entered into a settlement agreement, with D&G agreeing to no longer make jeans that had the tab.But Levis says D&G has started selling spring/summer 2011 jeans with the pocket tabs as well as pocket stitching similar to Levi's. Levi's claims to have sold the jeans with the tab and stitching pocket combination since 1936.
Dolce & Gabbana, however, isn't the first house of fashion Levi's slapped in the face with a ruffled white glove. Levi's filed somewhere around 100 lawsuits "against jeans manufacturers since 2001," including Guess, Zegna, Esprit, Lucky Brand and Zumiez.