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Mar 2, 2010
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Hyundai rejects Louis Vuitton claims over Super Bowl ad

By
AFP
Published
Mar 2, 2010

Louis Vuitton
Monogramme Louis Vuitton
SEOUL, March 2, 2010 (AFP)- South Korea's Hyundai Motor Tuesday 2 March rejected claims by French luxury goods maker Louis Vuitton that the automaker had ripped off its iconic logos in a Super Bowl commercial.

"Hyundai Motor does not see any merit in the claims," the fast-growing South Korean company said in a statement. "The advertisement is a humorous parody and nothing more."

Louis Vuitton Malletier, in a suit filed in US Southern District Court in Manhattan, alleged that a basketball in Hyundai Motor America's commercial deliberately imitated its famous geometric pattern.

The company, a division of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, said the imitation diluted the distinctiveness of its image and linked the automaker with the maker of premium bags and other high-end goods.

"Hyundai's conduct has caused and will likely continue to cause confusion, mistake, and deception among the general consuming public as to the origin and quality of its products advertised in the offending commercial," the suit said, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

In the advertisement Hyundai proclaimed it had created a new name for luxury and was seeking to give it to every person. One brief scene showed a group of men playing with a brown basketball adorned with gold X's and O's.

Louis Vuitton alleges that the pattern was a deliberate attempt to mimic its trademarked Toile Monogram of interlocking L's, V's and other shapes in gold on a brown background.

In the suit, the French designer is seeking to determine how much Hyundai would have profited from the commercial. It believes it is entitled to those profits.

Damages and legal fees are also being requested along with the destruction of all copies of the Hyundai advertisement, entitled "Luxury", which aired in the most expensive slot of the US advertising year.

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