J.Crew was sued last week for naming its “Duquette leopard print sweater” after Tony Duquette, an interior designer known for his use of leopard print on wallpaper, fabric, furniture, and goodness knows what else. Although Duquette died in 1999, his company continues to splash spots everywhere via his successor, Hutton Wilkinson, who has accused J.Crew of trademark infringement. Of course, Wilkinson isn’t claiming intellectual property rights to the leopard print (that would be silly); rather, he’s annoyed that J.Crew used the Duquette name without permission.
In the meantime, the Duquette cardigan (shown here) is nowhere to be found on the J.Crew website, but there’s now a similar-looking version named the “wild spots cardigan.”
