Marc Jacobs frowns on Nirvana lawsuit

Nirvana LLC, which owns rights to the band’s songs and logos, is holding a grudge over designer Marc Jacobs’ claim that he helped start the grunge movement.

At the heart of a copyright lawsuit filed in 2018 is the band’s iconic, sinister smiley face logo, which the suit claims was reproduced — replacing “Nirvana” for the word “Heaven” — on recent apparel by the clothing designer, in light of celebrating the grunge movement, according to media reports. 

Marc Jacobs International LLC on Friday fired back finally, filing for a dismissal of the lawsuit, claiming that the designer helped usher in grunge.

The apparel company’s lawyers argued in papers filed in a California federal court “that Nirvana, L.L.C. is not the legitimate owner of the ‘Happy Face’ logo copyright registration, that the registration is invalid, and that the fashion brand did not copy copyrightable aspects of the logo,” reported the news site Pitchfork.

The lawyers admit that Kurt Cobain “was the creator of the logo and that it remains unclear how he may have transferred the copyright ownership to Nirvana, L.L.C. … The lawyers’ second claim concerns the different dates and aspects of Nirvana’s original copyright claims, resulting in discrepancies that they believe make the claims invalid.”