Artist Creates Louis Vuitton Waffle-Maker

In the fashion law world, Louis Vuitton is not a force you want to mess with. The LV logo is a trademark that the brand relentlessly protects. As the logo develops an almost pop culture iconic status, many manufacturers have come to think that they can slap it onto any type of product without any intellectual property repercussions. For example, the company went after Haute Diggity Dog, LLC for producing a parody dog chew toy with the cheeky name "Chewy Vuitton." The product mimicked the shape, design and color of Louis Vuitton's Murakami handbags, but instead of LV, the toy's pattern included a stylized CV. The Fourth Circuit found that Haute Diggity Dog's use of CHEWY VUITON and its associated pattern to be a parody, and therefore not liable for trademark infringement.

In another example, The Fashion Law reported on Machine Guns Vegas' Louis Vuitton grip handgun, no doubt produced to cater to female gun owners. Since the post, the gun is no longer for sale on the site. But in this case, the usage of the trademark did not fall under any exceptions for infringement, and Machine Guns Vegas would no doubt have been found liable had they continued producing the gun.

But what about art? Earlier this summer, Los Angeles-based artist Andrew Lewicki designed a waffle-maker that embosses waffles with the iconic LV logo. The waffle-maker was created for exhibition and not for sale. This poses the following question: whether the use of a trademark for the purposes of art and not production constitutes trademark infringement? For example, how did Andy Warhol get away with his famous Campbell's Soup cans?

The lack of consumer confusion is generally what protects artists from being found liable for trademark infringement. Campbell's didn't have any reason to believe that their consumers would accidentaly buy Warhol's paintings when they meant to buy soup, so there's no competition there, and nothing unfair or infringing about Warhol's use. Similarly, Andrew Lewicki should be in the clear with Louis Vuitton, especially in light of the fact that the waffle-maker was created solely for exhibition and not for production. Let's hope Lewicki didn't inspire any kitchen-ware companies to create an LV waffe-maker for actual sale. We have no doubt LV wouldn't see the artistic value in that.