On 10 December Samsung announced a collaboration in the Chinese market with the Supreme fashion brand, the one with white writing on a red background. The problem is that Supreme didn't know anything about it. The Supreme with which Samsung has announced a collaboration is in fact another company known as Supreme Italia, which is in dispute with the US one.
The announcement was made during the event for the presentation of the new Galaxy A8 smartphone, broadcast live on Weibo, the Chinese Twitter. 18 minutes from the end of the video, Feng En – marketing director of Samsung China – spoke of “young people who nowadays want to show the uniqueness of their style” and “two brands that start with S”, and has then invited to the stage those who were introduced as two CEOs of Supreme. In front of two large logos of Samsung and Supreme, the two talked about their ambitious future plans, including the opening of a seven-story Supreme store in Beijing and a show to be organized at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai.
However, the two were not CEOs of Supreme, at least not if we mean by Supreme the famous streetwear clothing company founded in 1994 in New York by James Jebbia. The Supreme with which the Chinese division of Samsung has announced a collaboration is a company that – taking advantage of an unclear legal context – tries to operate with that name and that brand in markets where the original Supreme is not present, including the Italian one. The non-original Supreme is also known as “Supreme Italia”, although in reality it has stopped operating in the Italian market a few months ago due to some ongoing processes, and has concentrated on the Spanish one. The Supreme Italia brand is managed by the Italian company Trade Direct Srl and controlled by the British company International Brand Firm, which have nothing to do with the US Supreme. international fashion and tech sites, like The Verge and Hypebeast, but there are some things that don't add up. First of all, it is not clear how, when and on whose initiative the collaboration between the Chinese division of Samsung and Supreme Italia was born. It is also not clear whether the decision was taken independently by Samsung China or if the parent company of Samsung, a South Korean multinational, had been informed.
Supreme, the original one, commented on the matter with a Instagram story in which he wrote: «Supreme is not working with Samsung on the opening of a store in Beijing and it is not organizing a fashion show at the Mercedes-Benz Arena. Those claims are blatantly false and spread by a counterfeiting company. ” Leo Lau, head of digital marketing at Samsung China, wrote on Weibo in a post that was later deleted: «The collaboration is with Supreme Italia, not the US Supreme. The latter does not have the legal authorization to operate in the Chinese market, but the Italian has acquired the necessary authorization. ”
At this point, there are two questions: the first concerns the existence of Supreme Italia; the second concerns its possible right to operate in the Chinese market in place of the original Supreme. Both are complicated.
Supreme Italia
For many years the original Supreme has not registered its trademark in some countries, including Italy. It is not clear whether he did so out of negligence, disinterest or the inability to validate the registration of a trademark whose name is a simple superlative and whose logo – among other things explicitly inspired by the works of the American artist Barbara Kruger – it's very simple. Or just because, as The Fashion Law website explains, until a few years ago Supreme was a niche brand, disinterested in operating outside the United States, and which for just a few years has instead been a global company worth about one billion dollars.
The original Supreme registered its trademark in Italy in October 2015, but never sold products in Italy. Supreme Italia registered its trademark shortly after, in November 2015, with a logo similar but not identical to the original one (the red box is larger, for example). Unlike the original Supreme, Supreme Italia sold its products for a while in some stores and on some sites that are no longer accessible. In recent months International Brand Firm (the British company behind Supreme Italia) has also sold products in Spain, under the Supreme Spain brand. This is the reason why it is improper to speak of Supreme Italia as a single entity, because in reality it is only one of the “Supreme” brands of the International Brand Firm.
Supreme Italia is currently not active in Italy because there have been several trials, some of which are still ongoing, in Spain, in Italy and also in San Marino. At the beginning of 2018 the Court of Milan had agreed with the original Supreme, defining that of Supreme Italia as “parasitic competition”, but in August 2018 the Court of Trani had ruled out the possibility of counterfeiting because “according to the jurisprudence of legitimacy , for the purposes of the existence of the crime, neither the confusion between the two brands nor the substantial external identity of the product is sufficient “. The Court of Trani had therefore in fact proved Supreme Italia right, while accusing it of unfair competition and a civil offense (two less serious crimes than counterfeiting). In all of this, the original Supreme has not yet managed to get its trademark registered at the EUIPO (the European Union Intellectual Property Office). However, it is still an open question also because San Marino is involved, which has different laws.
Supreme (we don't know which one) in China
In order for Supreme Italia to operate in China with Samsung, in addition to the possibility of Supreme Italia to exist in Italy, it is necessary that Supreme Italia can use the name “Supreme” in China. Matthew Dresden – a lawyer for Harris Bricken, a legal firm that often deals with the Chinese market – told Quartz that since the 1990s there have been more than 100 requests to register something under the name “Supreme” and that Due to the loosening Chinese copyright laws, the original Supreme does not necessarily have the right to use that name in China. Quartz then wrote: “It may be entirely legal for Samsung and another Supreme other than the original to collaborate in China, using a name and logo indistinguishable from those of the Supreme in New York”.
