Forever 21 Sued By Fellow Chain Store Express

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Express is the latest company to sue Forever 21 for copyright and trade dress infringement, this time for menswear. The mall chain filed a case last week alleging that its oft-sued rival borrowed four of its registered patterns for men's shorts, and sold a track jacket modeled on one of its own (both jackets, at right).

While it's barely news anymore when Forever 21 gets sued, this story did prompt WWD to point out some interesting facts. First of all, we learn that Trovata's lawsuit against Forever 21, which stalled in a hung jury last month, will return in October. Also, we're told that Forever 21 actually attempts to prevent these kind of lawsuits from cropping up, at least according to owner Jin Sook Chang. "Chang emphasized there has been continuing training at Forever 21 for the last four or five years to alert members of the buying team to items that might present legal issues." Clearly, that's not working out so well.
· Express Sues Forever 21 [WWD, subscription req'd]
· Jury Hijinks Lead to Mistrial in Trovata Vs Forever 21 [Racked]