This image of a puffy ski jacket made by Perfect Moment was an exhibit to Aspen Skiing Co.’s lawsuit accusing the London-based clothing line of trademark infringement. Aspen Skiing Co.
’s trademark infringement litigation aimed at preventing a London-based company and its influencers from promoting their clothingline products on the local ski hills is over, according to recent court filings. SkiCo and the clothier being sued, Perfect Moment Ltd., mutually agreed to the complaint’s dismissal with each side paying their own legal and attorney fees.
The stipulation does not disclose the terms of the dismissal. Neither side was commenting on the outcome of the dismissal and what it means moving forward. SkiCo was notified about this article before publication but did not respond.
The Aspen law firm handling the defense for Perfect Moment said he also could not comment. The apparel SkiCo alleged infringed on its trademarks, however, was no longer on Perfect Moment’s website as of Tuesday. A federal judge dismissed the suit on Sept.
10. SkiCo, which initiated the lawsuit against Perfect Moment in the U.S.
District Court of Denver in December 2023, had demanded that the U.K. company stop dispatching its influencers to the local slopes, where they participated in photo shoots at places like the exclusive AspenX Beach Club on Aspen Mountain.
The suit alleged that by posing for photographs in Perfect Moment clothing at the AspenX Beach Club, the influencers and Perfect Moment were trading “on the goodwill and consumer recognition association with ASC Resorts and distinguishing characteristics and/or trade dress.” AspenX Beach Club debuted in 2021 as a product of the ASPENX luxury brand, a division of Aspen One, also the parent company of SkiCo. SkiCo is the sole plaintiff in the lawsuit.
The beach club is open on select days of the ski season; guests can buy out private space in a cabana-like outdoor setting on the snow, where they receive full food and beverage service and are provided with live entertainment. As well, the lawsuit cited some of Perfect Moment’s ski apparel with images of what appears to be of the AspenX Beach Club. Those images infringed on SkiCo’s trademarks, the company alleged.
. The suit asked the court to order Perfect Moment to cease using SkiCo-protected imagery on its products and to stop reproducing those images through social media posts. Perfect Moment’s social media and marketing efforts were likely creating confusion in the marketplace “and deception as to the source, affiliation, endorsement, and/or sponsorship of Perfect Moment’s merchandise, creating the false impression that Perfect Moment is endorsed by, sponsored by, or affiliated with ASC,” the suit said.
“Perfect Moment continually and repeatedly associates itself with the ASC Resorts and ASC’s Resort and Entertainment Services for the purpose of appropriating ASC’s world-class reputation and luxury lifestyle for the benefit of Perfect Moment,” the suit said. Perfect Moment, through Aspen lawyer Matt Ferguson in its response to the lawsuit, argued the imagery it used on its products depicted Aspen as a geographic location, making its photographs of chairlifts and ski runs fair game for reproduction. “Such uses are non-trademark nominative fair uses and are not infringement of any rights of ASC and are not unfair competition, false association, false endorsement, or a deceptive trade practice,” argued Ferguson, of the Ferguson Schindler Law Firm PC, in a March pleading.
Perfect Moment also filed a countersuit to SkiCo’s claims, asking the court to issue declaratory judgments allowing the clothier to use the words “Aspen, Colorado” as a geotag on its social media postings. SkiCo alleged that Perfect Moment's use of the geotag infringed upon its trademark rights. As well, SkiCo argued that its ski areas’ “distinguishable characteristics” were protected by intellectual property rights.
Perfect Moment denied violating the trademarks and noted that SkiCo leases its ski area terrain from the U.S. Forest Service.
“At least some portions of the Aspen ski area are owned by the United States and/or the United States Forest Service and ASC has permission to use such areas but is not the owner of them. ASC lacks standing to assert claims regarding the ‘distinguishing characteristics and/or trade dress’ of property which it does not own,” Perfect Moment argued in pleadings. Perfect Moment also took issue with SkiCo’s assertion that the clothier was reproducing images of “iconic ASC’s ASPENX BEACH CLUB experience.
” Ferguson argued for Perfect Moment that repeated claims in the suit by SkiCo that the beach club “is ‘iconic’ does not make it so — and in fact this new ‘beach’ concept was not known to [Perfect Moment] and it is not ‘iconic.’” Perfect Moment on Instagram describes the business as a “Chamonix-founded luxury ski wear and lifestyle label, making perfect moments on and off the slopes since 1984.” The parties held a mediation session July 23, according to an Aug.
1 filing by Ferguson for Perfect Moment. “The mediation was productive, and the parties made substantial progress toward settlement,” the filing said. rick@aspendailynews.
com.
