If the old saying about lawsuits is true — that justice most often is served when both sides walk away feeling as though they lost — what does it mean when both sides think they’ve won?

Such was the case this week when a federal appeals court ruled in favor of French fashion designer Christian Louboutin and his assertion of trademark rights to adding bright red soles to women’s shoes.

Last year, Mr. Louboutin accused rival design label Yves St. Laurent S.A.S. of illegally appropriating his shoes’ signature design element by releasing its own line of red-bottom high-heels. In a complaint against Yves, filed in April 2011 in the New York federal court, Mr. Louboutin asked for preliminary and permanent injunctions barring Yves St. Laurent from selling its red-sole shoes.

A judge in August 2011 denied Mr. Louboutin’s request for a preliminary injunction, saying fashion designers cannot assert legal ownership over the use of a color. That prompted an appeal from 49-year-old designer to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan.

On Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit overturned the lower court’s decision, ruling that the red soles are distinctive enough as a design element to qualify for trademark protection.

However, according to the ruling, that protection extends only to instances in which the red sole is used in contrast to the body of the shoe, leaving open the opportunity for other designers to make all-red shoes.

According to a Reuters report, attorneys for Mr. Louboutin and Yves St. Laurent both characterized the appeals court’s ruling as a win for their respective clients.

"The court has conclusively ruled that YSL's monochromatic red shoes do not infringe any trademark rights of Louboutin, which guarantees that YSL can continue to make monochromatic shoes in a wide variety of colors, including red," David Bernstein, and attorney for Yves St. Laurent, said in a statement to Reuters.

Mr. Louboutin’s attorney, Harley Lewin, told Reuters that the ruling gives the designer legal ground “to protect a life's work” that is “embodied in the red sole found on his women's luxury shoes.”