LOS ANGELES—Fashion label Marc Jacobs, artist Robert Fisher and Nirvana’s company have resolved a Los Angeles lawsuit over the use of a smiley face design the grunge-rock band placed on its T-shirts, according to court papers obtained Wednesday. In December 2018, the general partnership controlling Nirvana’s copyrights sued the design label for allegedly lifting the logo for the brand’s Bootleg Redux Grunge collection. Fisher later filed a motion to claim authorship of the design.
In papers filed this week in Los Angeles federal court, the judge overseeing the case permanently dismissed the suit based on a stipulated settlement. All parties are responsible for their own attorneys’s fees and costs, the judge wrote in the one-page written ruling. No further details were immediately available.
Nirvana’s attorneys stated the band’s company has used the smiley face design and logo continuously since 1992 to identify its music and licensed merchandise. The design was licensed for use on dozens of T-shirts, shirts, hats, hoodies, bags, backpacks, glasses, wallets, and other items, many of which have sold for decades, both with and without use of the band name adjacent to the smiley face design, lawyers said. Attorneys for Nirvana LLC—an entity consisting of former band members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, plus Kurt Cobain’s widow Courtney Love and daughter Frances Bean Cobain—contend that late Nirvana leader Cobain created the logo.
New York-based designer Mar.
