Three Thirteen Licensing, LLC seeks to stop Eminem from registering E13.

A Picture of  a Eminem's E13 Jacket, Photo- Ebay

Last summer, Eminem applied for a trademark for his clothing line dubbed E13 and Clement (Fame) Brown, a fashion designer and proprietor operating the Three Thirteen shop Brown and owner of the Three Thirteen brand is contesting this request.

Brief History…

·         Eminem's clothing line was launched in 2016, and a partnership with Carhartt has included E13-branded sweatshirts, hats and other merchandise sold at that company's flagship Detroit store. E13 has also collaborated with Nike on limited-edition Air Jordan sneakers. Some proceeds from E13 sales have gone to the Verses Project, a literacy program run by Michigan State University's Community Music School in Detroit.

Photo-Rolling Out

·         Brown's Three Thirteen store sells a variety of Detroit-branded merchandise, including his own designs and brands such as Detroit Hustles Harder and Detroit-vs-Everybody. A second location at the Livernois Avenue of Fashion is in the works.

·         Three Thirteen's logo is in Roman numerals: II with a slash through them stacked on XIII. E13's proposed logo is “the letter E appearing reversed, with the number 13 immediately to the right.” For years, Eminem’s main logo has used the same reversed character for the second E in his name; in the currently proposed trademark for E13, though, when reversed, the E looks like a 3, making the mark appear as 313.

• ·         Three-thirteen (313) is Detroit’s area code which is why both Eminem and Three Thirteen emphasize that number in their names.

The contention…

Photo: Free Press composite

• ·         A likelihood of confusion between the two brands. The visual similarities between the E13 logo and its own are likely to cause confusion.
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• ·         Similarity in sound.
• ·         Both brands play off of their relationships with the city of Detroit and they'd both be marketed and sold in similar trade channels, namely brick-and-mortar stores in Detroit and targeting consumers in that area.
• ·         Identical class of goods-Brown trademarked Three Thirteen in International Class 25, which covers clothing and apparel; Eminem is seeking trademark protection in the same class. The specific descriptions on the two applications overlap substantially, with both listing items such as T-shirts, sweatshirts, coats, hats, pajamas and footwear.

Parties’ comments…

·         Brown- "I respect Eminem and his position in hip-hop”. "As culture creators, it's necessary for us to protect our intellectual property. ... It's imperative that we have rights when it comes to our ideas. It's imperative that we have ownership of our creations."

·         Eminem- His attorney- Barbara Friedman stated as follows: "Our expectation is that Mr. Mathers will defend against the opposition, to protect his mark,"

 News source- Forbes

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