Goat Fashion scores court victory over Goat sneaker giant

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Oct 5, 2020

Upscale UK womenswear brand Goat Fashion has won a court battle against US sneaker platform Goat Group over the Goat trademark with an injunction designed to stop the latter from selling clothing and clothing accessories under the Goat name.

The New York judge ruled that Goat Fashion had proved its case about the confusion likely to be created and the damage it could do to its business and that Goat Group not being able to sell apparel was a problem of its own making, according to reports.

The British firm’s lawyer called it a “David versus Goliath fight”.

The US firm has been expanding its business from its sneaker origins into apparel and received an investment of $100 million last year to help fund this expansion.

But the UK firm said it has owned the Goat name for clothing in the US market since 2004. And Goat Group had earlier signed up to a Consent Agreement not to sell clothing or clothing accessories in order to be able to operate under the Goat trademark in that market.

It had approached the British company last year to seek permission to sell clothing via its marketplace, but that was refused on the grounds of the confusion it could cause.

But with Goat Group having gone ahead anyway, the court case was launched late last year.