Early Victory for Graffiti Artists in San Francisco Street Art Misappropriation Case

by Nancy Wolff,  DMLA Counsel Williams, Chapa, and Rubin v. Cavalli, Staff International, Nordstrom, Amazon, Zappos (Central Dist. Of CA, 2014)Roberto Cavalli S.p.A., a high-fashion apparel brand company, along with several online retailers, is in heated litigation in a California federal court with graffiti artists over the Just Cavalli collection, featuring clothing and accessories embellished with graffiti art copied from a mural in San Francisco’s Mission district. The collection was sold in Just Cavalli stores and through online retailers.Street artists known as “Revok”, “Reyes” and “Steel”, created the mural and complained that the fabric in this collection consisted of their stylized art pseudonyms on a background of Reyes’ signature swirls. In their complaint, the artists assert that Cavalli not only violated their exclusive rights under copyright by misappropriating selections of the Mural.Read the entire article here.