Legal Question in Business Law in Canada
can i sell jewelry of designer brand logos?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Unless you have their permission... Likely no, but read on...
Owners of designer brands generally have their logos trademarked. Generally, owners of a trademark have protection under Canada's Trade-marks Act and also under common law. If you use or profit off their registered trademark, you can get sued for infringement, depreciation of goodwill and other damages.
Where it becomes a bit grey is what "good or service" you are using it for. Trademark laws are intended to prevent counterfeiters from passing off their goods as the authentic goods, profiting off the goodwill of another or deteriorating the value of the goodwill attached to the mark.
If you produced belts and put Gucci's "G" logos on them, clearly that would infringe on a trademark because Gucci makes belts and you would confuse consumers into thinking yours was an authentic belt, manufactured with the same quality as Gucci is known to have, and you would be stealing the goodwill they earned through decades of advertising and brand-building.
On the other hand, if you had an auto-mechanic shop and put a big "G" similar to the Gucci logo on your door, it would be unlikely that someone would think your mechanic shop was affiliated with the designer, Gucci because it's not in the same "wares or services for which it is registered".
Many designer brands have jewelry and watches and there's a very good chance that their trademarks would be registered for those categories. If this represents a potentially significant part of your business, you should certainly have a lawyer experienced in intellectual property look at the registrations, look at what you intend to sell and give you a more specific opinion.
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