T-Shirt Company in Legal Skirmish With MasterCard
San Francisco-based streetwear manufacturer Dirtbag Clothing Inc. is in a legal battle with MasterCard International. The credit-card giant claims one of Dirtbag’s T-shirt designs infringes on its famous interlocking-circles trademark.
MasterCard issued a cease-and-desist order demanding that Dirtbag remove the design from its line. The company’s legal order stated that consumers will mistake Dirtbag’s design for its own and that the similar design will cause confusion in the marketplace.
Dirtbag’s founder, Douglas Canning, said the design was meant to parody the credit-card company.
“I’m actually quite flattered,” Canning said. “It’s amazing that a multi-billion dollar corporation has nothing better to do than threaten two guys just trying to sell a few T-shirts and make a living.”
“To anyone living in the real world, the design is an obvious parody—how anyone could confuse Dirtbag with MasterCard is beyond me,” he added. “We make T-shirts. MasterCard lures millions of people into spending money they don’t have. Where’s the confusion?”
Canning said Dirtbag will comply with MasterCard’s cease-and-desist order.
“Although I didn’t agree that we infringed upon their trademark, I don’t have a huge legal team or the thousands of dollars needed to fight this,” he said. —Robert McAllister
