Luxury & Brand Identity
The Cost of a Flower
A Chinese tea chain, a 130-year-old monogram and the question of who gets to draw a petal.
The Luxury Collection · Podcast Coming Soon
While Waiting for My Birkin
Parody bags, reputation and the question of whether humour is a defence to trademark infringement. The third of three pieces on how luxury houses are defending their brand identity.
Top Stories
Luxury & Brand Identity
Someone Else's Buttons
Upcycled luxury, exhausted rights and the line between creative reuse and trademark infringement.
Your Face & Your Voice
The Face on the Box
Copyright, celebrity likeness and the $15 million question of who said "yes".
Your Face & Your Voice
The Sound of Yourself
Trademark, deepfakes and the question of whether you can own your own voice.
Coming Soon
The Obiter Dictum Podcast
Two episodes are in the edit: Hermès and the parody bag, and Louis Vuitton and the tea chain. They arrive on Spotify shortly, and every episode will live here alongside its companion article.
From the Archive
Trade Dress
Who Owns an Octagon?
How Audemars Piguet lost the legal right to its most famous design, and why a $400 pocket watch might be the smartest response.
Dupe Culture
Does It Matter If Nobody Is Fooled?
How dupe culture broke the one thing trademark law needs to work, and why the courts are struggling to keep up.