VANS, INC. v. MSCHF PRODUCT STUDIO, INC.

Docket No. 22-1006 August Term, 2022.

88 F.4th 125 (2023)

VANS, INC., VF Outdoor, LLC., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. MSCHF PRODUCT STUDIO, INC., Defendant-Appellant.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Decided: December 5, 2023.


Attorney(s) appearing for the Case

David H. Bernstein ( Megan K. Bannigan , Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, New York, NY; William D. Patterson , Swanson, Martin & Bell, LLP, Chicago IL, on the brief), for Defendant-Appellant.

Lucy Jewett Wheatley , McGuire Woods LLP, Richmond, VA ( Philip A. Goldstein , McGuire Woods LLP, New York, NY; Tanya L. Greene , McGuire Woods LLP, Los Angeles, CA, on the brief), for Plaintiffs-Appellees.

Vivek Jayaram , Jayaram Law Group, Chicago, IL, for Amicus Curiae Daniel Arsham in Support of Defendant-Appellant.

Ronald D. Coleman , Dhillon Law Group Inc., Newark, NJ, for Amici Curiae Emmanuel Perrotin, Jean-Paul Engelen in Support of Defendant-Appellant.

Mark A. Lemley , Lex Lumina PLLC, New York, NY, for Amici Curiae Intellectual Property Professors in Support of Plaintiffs-Appellees.

John P. O'Herron ( Zachary D. Cohen , Rachel W. Adams , on the brief), ThompsonMcMullan, P.C., Richmond, VA, for Amici Curiae American Apparel & Footwear Association, Footwear Distributors & Retailers of America, Council of Fashion Designers of America, Inc., and Accessories Council in Support of Plaintiffs-Appellees.

Stanley Panikowski , DLA Piper LLP (US), San Diego, CA ( Tamar Y. Duvdevani , DLA Piper LLP (US), New York, NY, on the brief), for Amicus Curiae Nike, Inc., in Support of Plaintiffs-Appellees.

Vijay K. Toke , Rimon P.C., San Francisco, CA ( Martin Schwimmer , Leason Ellis LLP, White Plains, NY; David Donahue , Fross Zelnick Lehrman & Zissu, P.C., New York, NY, on the brief), for Amicus Curiae International Trademark Association in Support of neither party.

Rhett O. Millsaps II , Lex Lumina PLLC, New York, NY ( Mark P. McKenna , Christopher J. Sprigman , Rebecca Tushnet , on the brief), for Amici Curiae Authors Alliance, Mason Rothschild, Alfred Steiner in Support of neither party.

Before: Jacobs, Chin, and Robinson, Circuit Judges.


In this case, defendant-appellant MSCHF Product Studio, Inc. ("MSCHF"), created a sneaker, the Wavy Baby, that purported to parody the Old Skool shoe, created and marketed by plaintiff-appellee Vans, Inc. ("Vans"), and thereby comment on the consumerism inherent in sneakerhead culture. MSCHF altered the features of an Old Skool sneaker by distorting...

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