Marc Jacobs has announced that he will be reissuing his famous clothing line, the Bootleg Redux Grunge collection. Now this collection has been causing issues since it was first created. It was the collection to both make Marc Jacobs famous and get him fired from Perry Ellis in 1993, according to Refinery 29.
Today this collection is stirring up trouble with the infamous grunge band Nirvana and their iconic smiley face logo. A shirt in the Bootleg Redux Grunge collection uses this iconic yellow squiggly smiley face with the letters "M" and "J" in place of the crossed out eyes along with the word "HEAVEN" in the same font and location as where the band's name should be. This is what caused Nirvana to sue Marc Jacobs as this appears to be practically a cut and paste of their trademark logo on a shirt for his personal gain without any agreement or collaboration with the band. Refinery 29 reports that it is specifically the fact that Marc Jacobs neglected to "receive authorization or pay a license fee to use Nirvana's intellectual property" and that he writes "This exclusive piece from the 1993 Grunge collection was created by Marc Jacobs during his time at Perry Ellis. This bootleg smiley tee sure smells like teen spirit" in the description of his collection that caused this lawsuit.
Another reason why Nirvana is suing is that they believe that the T-shirt "infringed Nirvana's copyright, misleadingly used Nirvana's trademarks and utilized other elements with which Nirvana is widely associated to make it appear that Nirvana has endorsed or is otherwise associated with" the collection.
According to Stereogum the exact origin of this iconic yellow squiggly smiley face is unknown, although it was first seen on a flyer for Nirvana's release party for the album "Nevermind" in 1991, and was said to have been drawn by Kurt Cobain. By 1992 Nirvana owned the trademark to this smiley face that everyone immediately connects with not only the band but as a representation of the grunge scene they were a part of.
