Quiksilver, Kymsta Fight Over Roxy Label Continues
The ongoing legal tussle between two California apparel companies over the Roxy name is heading to court for a second time.
Quiksilver Inc., a giant of a company whose Roxy label for young women and girls accounts for 31 percent of its $2.4 billion revenues, and Kymsta Corp., a small company that makes the Roxywear label for women, are scheduled to battle it out for a second time in U.S. District Court the week of Feb. 11.
The rematch will be similar to the legal proceedings in U.S. District Court four years ago. But this time, there will be a jury trial.
During the 2004 trial, U.S. District Judge Dickran Tevrizian dismissed the jury to make his own legal ruling. He decided that both sides could coexist and keep their brand names. However, several restrictions were placed on Kymsta’s use of the Roxywear label. One of those limitations prohibited Kymsta from making any licensing agreements with other companies, curtailing the company’s profitability. Kymsta challenged the ruling in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing the trial should have been decided by a jury instead of a judge. The appeals court agreed. That was in 2006. Two years later, we are seeing round two in the epic case.
“We are preparing and ready to go,” said Kymsta attorney James D. Nguyen of Foley & Lardner. “We are waiting to hear from the court about an exact date when a criminal case will be wrapped up in the court room of Judge Valerie Baker Fairbank.”
Quiksilver’s attorney Mike Yoder of O’Melveny & Myers was unavailable for comment at press time.
The years-long dispute plays out like a David vs. Goliath tale. Kymsta, a Los Angeles company owned by Art Pereira and his wife, designer Roxanne Heptner, started their $4 million venture 16 years ago, creating Roxywear in 1992.
Quiksilver, a 37-year-old surfwear and sporting-goods company in Huntington Beach, Calif., employing 9,600 people worldwide, said it launched Quiksilver Roxy in 1991. It later dropped Quiksilver from the label.
Kymsta is not only trying to keep its name, but it will ask for a certain percentage of Quiksilver’s Roxy profits as compensation, Nguyen said. —Deborah Belgum
