With a judgment issued through an abbreviated trial, the Federal Court of the Southern District of New York has ruled in favor of Tod’s in the dispute between the Italian brand and Tribe of Two, a US brand specializing in luxury leather goods. The court ruled out any likelihood of confusion between Tod’s “Double T” metal hardware and the competitor’s registered logo, closing — at least in the first instance — a dispute that had placed the protection of minimalist symbols in the fashion industry at the center of the debate.
The lawsuit was initiated in 2023 by Tribe of Two, a Florida-based company that produces exotic leather bags made in Italy. The company claimed that Tod’s double-“T” horizontal metal hardware infringed on its trademark — a similar, but vertically oriented typographic composition — devised by founder Brenda Schad in 2012. This challenge was accompanied by the theory of the so-called “reverse confusion”: Tod’s dominant position on the market would have risked absorbing the identity of the smaller brand, making consumers inclined to associate the smaller brand with the larger one, rather than the other way around.
The judge rejected the plaintiffs’ arguments in their entirety, concluding that no reasonable juror could have recognized a probability of confusion between the two signs. The analysis did not stop at the visual comparison between logos, but examined the reality of the market through a multi-factor assessment. As for distribution channels, the court found that Tod’s operates through single-brand boutiques and department stores, while Tribe of Two relies mainly on trunk shows, private events and direct sales: marketing methods that structurally reduce the risk of perceptual overlap. As for the consumer profile, the price of Tribe of Two’s products — between one thousand and three thousand dollars — led the court to believe that buyers exercise a level of attention such as to make any ambiguity about the origin of the product unlikely. Finally, the evidence of real confusion produced by the actress was judged to be completely marginal.
A particularly relevant passage of the judgment concerns the distinctive force of the sign of Tribe of Two. The court noted that logos built on the letter “T” are already widely used in the industry — with explicit reference to Tory Burch — and concluded that the design in question does not have sufficient creative or unique characteristics to justify extended protection. The presence of similar signs in adjacent product categories weakens the ability of the trademark to establish itself as an exclusive element, consequently reducing the extent of the protection recognizable to it.
Strategic victory for Tod’s: New York Court dismisses infringement allegations on the “Double T” logo
