Is Victoria's Secret Taking Jabs at ThirdLove With Its Latest Plans?
The battle in your lingerie drawer is raging on. Victoria's Secret's latest trademark filings could be a direct knock at competitor ThirdLove. According to The Fashion Law, the mall giant has filed trademark applications for Victoria's Secret First Love, a name very, very similar to the upstart lingerie brand.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has already approved the use of Victoria's Secret First Love for cosmetics, including "body wash; body lotion; perfume; lip gloss; [and] facial masks." The paperwork has been filed and the company will be granted a registration as soon as products hit shelves.
The two brands clashed as recently as last year, during the lead-up to Victoria's Secret's annual fashion show.
"We're nobody's third love, we're their first love. Victoria's Secret has been women's first love from the beginning," Ed Razek, the senior creative at Victoria's Secret, told Vogue in 2018. It was a clear blow to ThirdLove, who the Fashion Law reports as earning a chunk of the lingerie market share thanks to its wide size offerings. Victoria's Secret's decline in sales has been well-documented, with in-store sales falling for the past three years.
The company is facing some pushback from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for using Victoria’s Secret First Love on clothing and swimwear, however. The application was refused because the USPTO thought the name was too close to other brands already in the market. ThirdLove wasn't called out specifically. Instead, The Fashion Law reports that wholesaler Top Fashion of NY Inc. uses the brand name First Love for a clothing collection and was granted a registration for the name back in September 2015.
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"Adding a house mark to an otherwise confusingly similar mark will not obviate a likelihood of confusion," the USPTO wrote in its review of Victoria's Secret's request. The company has until June to revise its application with evidence that consumers won't be confused.
