Louis Vuitton ordered to pay $1 million to settle copyright infringement dispute

According to Vogue Business, the lawsuit concerns a lock feature designed by Jocelyn Imbert in 1988 for the Louis Vuitton house. The lock, which she called the “LV Tournant,” was designed specifically for Louis Vuitton Malletier. The courts found that in 1992 Imbert and Louis Vuitton Malletier signed a specific contract that stated that if any new lines or ranges of bags were to use this lock, Imbert would receive a new payout of €76,000 EUR (approximately $83,230 USD). In 2014, Imbert noticed that the locks she designed were used in the Twist line and other susbequent products, however, she did not receive the payments.

In a statement to Vogue Business, Imbert’s lawyer Jean-Philippe Hugot states, “To summarize Louis Vuitton’s position, they claim that the 1992 agreement enables them to exploit my client’s creation on every product. Needless to say we strongly disagree with this. My client has always expected a negotiation with Louis Vuitton.”

In the matter of the case, Louis Vuitton Malletier will now have to pay Imbert €900,000 EUR ($992,709 USD) in compensation in accordance with the court appeal. Initially, judges threw out the case in 2020. Now it appears that Imbert has settled the issue with a payment from LVMH.

LVMH has not yet commented on the issues at hand at this time.