Aquazzura Italia has put an end to a lawsuit against Ivanka Trump accusing her of ripping off a popular shoe design for her namesake brand.
The Italian brand on Friday dropped its allegations of trademark infringement after coming to an apparent agreement outside of the court with Trump and Marc Fisher Footwear, the company that produces shoes for the Ivanka Trump brand, according to a notice filed with a federal New York court.
The suit was dismissed with prejudice, meaning Aquazzura’s claims cannot be revived in the future, and any terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
Representatives of the parties could not be immediately reached for comment.
Earlier this year the case looked to be headed for trial, and the court even ordered that Trump be deposed in person after her attorney attempted to argue that she had no knowledge of the disputed design and participating in the litigation would be a “burden” that would “far outweigh any benefit to Aquazzura.”
Since taking up an official, but technically unpaid, role in her father’s White House, Trump has kept her brand plugging along. She’s received a number of trademarks and even has plans to open a freestanding retail store in New York’s Trump Tower. She earlier had stores on Madison Avenue and in SoHo, both of which closed.
Aquazzura filed its lawsuit in June of last year, claiming the Ivanka Trump brand had made a near exact replica of its Wild Thing shoe, something of a staple design for the Italian brand and one that it claimed trade dress rights to.
Shortly after launching litigation, Aquazzura’s chief executive officer Jean-Michel Vigneau said the brand “cannot allow its well-known, signature styles to be copied” and that it “has repeatedly objected to Ivanka Trump’s shoe designs.”
Trump and Marc Fisher Footwear subsequently denied the allegations and the claim, with the latter arguing that Aquazzura had no legal rights to the design and demanding that the court declare as much.
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