Finnish textile design company Marimekko said yesterday it had reached an agreement with Italian fashion house Dolce & Gabbana to end their spat over its trademarked poppy flower pattern "Unikko". "The parties have agreed on the handling of already manufactured products and on the fee to be paid to Marimekko, and will both withdraw all the legal proceedings concerning the Unikko trademark," the Finnish firm said in a statement.
It did not however disclose the fee it would receive each time Dolce & Gabbana uses the pattern. "The parties have agreed that more details on the agreement will not be revealed," Marimekko spokeswoman Marja Korkeela told AFP.
The dispute started when Marimekko discovered that the Italian fashion house had been using a red flower pattern similar to Unikko without permission. In July, Marimekko said it was fighting to protect the pattern after the Italian company had applied to the European Union agency for registered trademarks and designs to have the Unikko trademark voided. Earlier this year a district court had granted an injunction on sales and marketing of certain Dolce & Gabbana products in Germany.
The Unikko pattern was designed by Maija Isola in 1964 for Marimekko, but it experienced a second coming at the beginning of this decade when it was splashed across numerous consumer products, including rubber boots, bibs, bags and shower curtains.
