Luxury watchmaker Hublot settles ‘red gold’ trademark row with celebrity bling designer
Seven-year legal dispute ends out of court after Chris Aire gains US trademark for the term in 2003, only to see the Swiss brand use it for its own watches
Swiss luxury watchmaker Hublot has settled a legal tussle with an independent watchmaker over the use of the term “red gold” to describe its timepieces.
Chris Aire, an American jewellery and watch designer, says he adopted “Red Gold” as the signature name for his creations to appeal to high-flying athletes and artists who may have balked at wearing rose-hued bling.
That marketing decision worked: Aire’s adornments can cost up to US$275,000 and have been worn by some of the biggest names in sports and entertainment, including the late Muhammad Ali, Jay Z and Angelina Jolie.
Aire’s seven-year fight to block Hublot, owned by the luxury conglomerate LVMH, from using “red gold” to describe its own products had been heading for a celebrity-studded showdown in a Los Angeles court later this month.
But both sides have decided to avoid letting a jury decide whether red gold is a valid trademark and have settled the dispute out of court.
Lawyers for Hublot and Aire said in a court filing that they were dismissing all claims and counterclaims. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
The dispute had centred on whether Hublot had infringed the trademark owned by Aire, a Nigerian immigrant who came to the United States as a teenager.
Damages could have been in the tens of millions of dollars if the case had gone to trial and the jury had rejected Hublot’s defence that red gold was simply a generic term for a high-copper-content version of the precious metal.