Trademark troubles: Calgary business sees similar design in big box stores

When Dustin Paisley and his co-founder of Calgary-based Local Laundry began selling clothes with Canadian designs, they wanted to create something unique but not tacky, that people could wear with pride.

The created a design and then trademarked it to protect their intellectual property.

“We did everything right by all standards. We spoke to our lawyer, we filed a trademark registration, we went through all the legal process, went through the system, paid the thousands of dollars,” Paisley explained.

Local Laundry has been selling the design that they made since 2016, but just recently found out that a similar design was being sold by a big box store.

“It was actually a customer that reached out to us and said ‘Hey look there’s a design that’s similar to yours,'” Paisley said. “And so obviously we went and investigated and sure enough, we found a design that was very confusingly similar to ours that was sold in Walmart.”

Instead of the maple lead featured on Local Laundry’s design, the clothing sold at Walmart features a moose.

They felt the design was similar, and filed a an infringement claim with Walmart Canada.

“So we filled out three of those, a number of phone calls and finally they got back to us,” Paisley said. “There’s been a bit of communication back and forth, but their stance was that they’re going to continue to be selling the product.”

He said his company is exploring options to protect their design, but feel there is a gap which allows for other businesses to produce similar designs without any repercussions.

“This is something the Government of Canada, the trademark office, has actually said ‘You own the registered trademark to this design,'” Paisley added, “And so I think that’s what’s most disappointing about all of this, is we feel failed by the system.”

Retail giant drops design

In a statement provided to CityNews Thursday, Walmart Canada said they would be dropping the design.

Watch: Walmart responds to trademark infringement claim by Calgary company

“We respect the intellectual property rights of others and take allegations of this nature seriously,” Stephanie Fusco, Senior Manager, Corporate Affairs, said. “We can confirm that we were in touch with Local Laundry earlier this year to discuss their concerns. 

“Despite our position that we have not infringed Local Laundry’s intellectual property rights, we have decided to move away from this design for future collections.”