We’ve been covering the bizarre and somewhat ridiculous fight that The North Face is putting up against a kid who created a parody line of clothing called The South Butt. You can read through the previous stories if you haven’t been following this, but at its most basic, this is a trademark dispute. The North Face is claiming trademark infringement, and in doing so, demonstrating that it has no sense of humor. However, the latest legal shenanigans from the lawyers representing The North Face are bordering on cruel. In early depositions, it appears that they are trying to drag the names of the kid who created The South Butt and his father (Jimmy and James Winklemann) through the mud by digging up any kind of dirt on them that they can.
Joe Mullin points us to the news of a contentious deposition of the father, where The North Face’s lawyers started bringing up a variety of old business partnerships, including one with someone who had pleaded guilty to stealing money from clients. What that has to do with your everyday trademark dispute is not clear, but it certainly angered the father (and also resulted in claims of a conflict of interest, in that the same law firm had apparently been involved with that former business partner in some manner).
Then there’s the younger James (better known as Jimmy), and here the North Face lawyers chose to ask him about being charged as a minor for possessing alcohol at a party last fall, as well as being arrested for having a small amount of marijuana (a charge that was later changed to littering). Jimmy admits that this was embarassing, since his father was unaware of these minor infractions, but he ended up confessing to his father before the news of the deposition came out.
But, honestly, what is up with The North Face? They never should have filed this lawsuit in the first place, as it only makes them look like a bunch of bullies. If they were really concerned about protecting the trademark from being considered generic, why not give the kid a super cheap license and enjoy people finding the whole thing amusing. Instead, they’re not just aggressively suing this kid, but bringing up a whole bunch of totally unrelated things to try to embarass both the son and his father. The North Face has gone from just being big corporate bullies to being out and out obnoxious jerks.
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