Shakespeare may not think there is much in a name, but Louis Vuitton begs to differ. The French luxury brand paid $12,000 for the rights to use the town of Vendôme’s registered “Vendôme” trademark for jewelry for ten years. Now, in a recent turn of events, a French administrative court annulled Vendôme’s 2021 decision to let Louis Vuitton use the town’s trademark because the municipality failed to justify the price. The case was brought by a local heritage association, “Vendôme, notre patrimoine,” which filed its challenge in July 2021, arguing that the fee was far below market value and not transparently set.
Yes, it is a nominal fee for a maison that sells handbags priced between $2,000 and $8,000, with models like Artycapucines touching five figures. In comparison, granting the brand that frequently uses “Vendôme” in its jewelry marketing a ten-year license for $12,000 seems almost unfair. “The town of Vendôme is not transferring its name to Louis Vuitton, a subsidiary of LVMH, but is transferring the ‘Vendôme’ brand,” Mayor Laurent Brillard explained at the time, adding that the agreement simply allowed “the use of the name Vendôme for any creation of a collection or products related to luxury jewelry.”
According to 20 Minutes, in a decision dated September 24, the Orléans Administrative Court found that Vendôme did not substantiate how the €10,000 (about $12,000) figure was calculated, and therefore annulled the council’s authorization for overstepping because it didn’t provide the basis for the amount.
Louis Vuitton already operates two leather-goods workshops in the Vendôme area, known as the Vendôme and Azé ateliers, inaugurated in February 2022 with several hundred jobs planned. The investment was part of a broader national push to expand French craftsmanship, which the mayor cited as the public benefit of the town’s cooperation with Louis Vuitton.
