A South Korean court has ordered a fried chicken restaurant owner to pay 14.5 million won ($12,500) for refusing to comply with a ban on using the luxury Louis Vuitton brand name for his outlet, a report said Tuesday.
The owner, identified only by his surname Kim, had called his restaurant in Seoul, “LOUIS VUITON DAK” - a play on the word “tongdak” which means whole chicken in Korean.
He also ran up a logo very similar to that of the French fashion house and had it printed on his napkins and fried chicken take-out cartons.
None too pleased with Mr Kim’s ingenuity, Louis Vuitton filed a suit in September last year, saying the use of the company’s name to sell fried chicken was damaging to the brand.
A district court in Seoul agreed and in October ordered Kim to desist and threatened a 500,000 won-per-day fine for non-compliance.
Kim responded by tinkering with the restaurant name and came up with “chaLouisvui tondak” which he unsuccessfully argued was different enough to comply with the court ruling.