Fashion companies aren’t usually keen on people counterfeiting their goods or misusing their logo, even if it’s for satirical purposes. But some have a curiously relaxed approach when it comes to appropriating the designs of others themselves, especially when it comes to turning symbols of counterculture into motifs for corporate fashion.
With its zonked out face, the Nirvana logo is one of the best band logos of all time, famously appearing on T-shirts with the phrase “Flower sniffin’, kitty pettin’, baby kissin’, Corporate rock whore”. So the remaining members of the Seattle grunge band were not impressed when fashion company Marc Jacobs launched a T-shirt featuring a very similar design as part of a collection dubbed ‘Redux Grunge’. The epic legal battle that ensued has finally reached a conclusion.
Smells like a ripoff. Nirvana’s classic smiley face T-shirt (left) and the Marc Jacobs copy (right) (Image credit: nirvana.com & marcjacobs.com)
Nirvana sued Jacobs along with retailers Saks and Neiman Marcus Group back in 2018. In 2020, Robert Fisher, a Los Angeles designer who worked with Nirvana in the 1990s, joined the lawsuit. He said he designed the smiley face for a Nirvana t-shirt in 1991. Nirvana went on to register the copyright for the logo in 1993.
Initially, Marc Jacobs claimed that the designs weren’t that similar despite its T-shirt sporting the same scribbly line, Onyx font and yellow and black colour palette (Marc Jacobs’ version does make a few brazen tweaks, changing the text ‘Nirvana’ to the arguably synonymous ‘Heaven’ and ironically replacing the crosses on the eyes with the brand’s initials). It later changed tactics, arguing instead that the logo didn’t belong to Nirvana since Fisher had never transferred ownership of the design.
According to Bloomberg Law, all parties involved have now reached an agreement following a June 28 settlement conference. A report filed in the US District for the Central District of California doesn’t reveal the terms of the settlement but states that a detailed agreement is being drafted.
