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Lululemon is going after Costco, saying it copied the designs of some of its most popular product lines.
The Vancouver-based athleisure brand filed a lawsuit against Costco on Friday in California court, accusing it of ripping off the designs of its yoga jackets and chinos.
In the 49-page filing, it spotlighted three product lines — its Scuba hoodies and sweatshirts, Define jackets, and ABC pants — saying Costco had created “confusingly similar” dupes of them. It said Costco had infringed its “trade dress,” a broad trademark law that protects the look and feel of a product.
In the lawsuit, Lululemon put pictures of Costco’s and its products side by side in tables to emphasize design similarities. For example, it compared Costco’s Kirkland men’s pants, priced at $19.90, to the $128 ABC men’s pants.
It also compared Costco’s Spyder women’s yoga jacket, which retails for $21.90, to the Lululemon Define jacket, which retails for $128.
“There is even a hashtag ‘LululemonDupes’ on social media platforms such as TikTok that social media influencers use when promoting these copycat products,” Lululemon said in the filing. “The Infringing Products create an improper association with Plaintiffs’ authentic products.”
Per the filing, Lululemon said it wanted damages from Costco in the form of lost profits and compensation for patent infringement. It also wants Costco to stop manufacturing and selling more products that are “identical or confusingly similar” to Lululemon’s clothing.
Costco has yet to respond to Lululemon’s lawsuit. Representatives for Lululemon and Costco did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
Lululemon has accused other companies of copyright infringement.
In 2021, the brand sued exercise equipment company Peloton after it launched its clothing line. Lululemon used similar wording in that lawsuit, saying Peloton’s products looked “confusingly similar” to its own Align leggings. The two companies settled the lawsuit in September 2022.
In 2012, Lululemon sued Calvin Klein, saying the latter infringed design patents on its now-discontinued “Astro” yoga pants’ signature waistband and design. However, it withdrew the lawsuit in the same year after the parties agreed to a confidential settlement.
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