David won the battle against Goliath. After five years of appeals and clashes in European courts, the small brand Goldstar of the Romagna footwear district – known for having saved the most famous brand in 2015 Valleverde – takes away the satisfaction of seeing the colossus’ arrogance recognized Birkenstock from six different courts in the Old Continent: the comfortable, unsightly and widely sold German slippers are not entitled to claim the exclusive use of the crossed-wave sole.
The sole is not (only) from Birkenstock
“Birkenstock’s attempt to eliminate a competitor through the courts has been averted. In the various courts, the last one in Paris with the sentence of 29 January, we have shown that it is a sole that we have been using for 40 years and that we can therefore use it in a completely legitimate way “, says Elvio Silvagni, patron of the Rafting Goldstar brand and of the Ravenna group of comfortable and anatomical shoes which also includes Biochic and Biomodex, as well as Valleverde.
Loading…
A small family holding company with a total pre-Covid turnover of 40 million euros, against the almost 800 million euros of the big one in Rhineland-Palatinate, which ended a few weeks ago, after almost 250 years of history, in the French hands of LVMH.
The unanimous verdict of the courts
The European Court of Justice, the Court of Appel and the Tribunal Judiciaire of Paris in France, the Deutsches Patent-und Markenamt in Germany, rejected Birkenstock’s request to register the models and sole design as a trademark. the Rechtbank den Haag in the Benelux and the Court of Milan. “This is a battle that has been going on for five years: a few months after acquiring the Valleverde brand – says the patron from Romagna – the summons from Birkenstock against Goldstar for the use of a bottom with a particular pattern on the tread. We were born with that article, which is still a bestseller today. So we started fighting and all the sentences proved us right ».
Goldstar also celebrates the victory in Paris
The Silvagni family wrote a letter to customers, retailers and points of sale (1,500 throughout Italy) to celebrate the victory in the wake of the latest ruling by the Paris court, which confirmed that the cork sole with the rubber bottom from the particular geometric texture is not patentable, reiterating what has already been established by the European Court of Justice in judgment C-26/17 of 2018 and then in Italy (judgment 54366/2015 of the Milanese judges), in Germany (judgment 30 2015 053 169 of the Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt) and in the Benelux (judgment C10915 11931 / HA ZA 16-625 of the Rechtbank den Haag).