Robert and Michael Geiss founded
“Uncle Sam”, a sports apparel label in 1986 and sold it in January 1995 for a
reported 140M. DM.
Robert Geiss and his
family have a reality show on German TV “The Geisses – a terribly glamorous family”.
The family resides in tax haven Monaco ("A sunny place for shady people").
At the beginning of March
2013, Robert Geiss launched his new fashion label "Roberto Geissini".
According to fashion designer Philipp Plein, Geiss ripped off his designs – especially
his trademark skulls, ornate lettering, and bling-bling.
In contrast to Geiss,
Plein is a well-established fashion designer. His "heavy metal"
collection featured on "Germany's Next Top Model" presented by Heidi
Klum. At the Nuremburg Toy Fair 2009, he collaborated with Mattel (NASDAQ:MAT) in
creating the Philipp Plein Barbie doll to celebrate 50 years of Barbies.
Plein
has stores in Monte Carlo, Milan, Vienna, Moscow, St. Tropez, Cannes, Kitzbühel,
Düsseldorf, Forte dei Marmi, Hong Kong, Marbella, Baku, Dubai, St. Petersburg,
Seoul, Macau, Amsterdam and Berlin. Plein also dresses the team players of A.S.Roma.
The
Roberto Geissini fashion like also feature skulls, ornate lettering, and bling-bling.
It raises the strong suspicion that Geiss is a copycat.
Needless
to say, Philipp Plein is checking his legal options, stating that “we take
action on each instance of counterfeiting.” He explained to the Berlin
newspaper “BZ” that the house style is “unique” and that “people buy Philipp Plein
for its brand, not just as a product.”
In the
end the court will have to decide if bling-bling skulls can be seen as IP. As
it looks now, Geiss is for sure guilty of piggy-back riding – and may be of
infringement of IP.
