ArentFox Schiff Wins Appellate Victory in Copyright Infringement Suit for Alexander Wang, Inc.

In 2021, Claudia Diroma, under the company name Jangle Vision, LLC, sued fashion designer Alexander Wang for violating her intellectual property rights by allegedly using her designs in videos posted on social media. Diroma asked for $6 million in damages, plus an additional $75 million of profit shares. Alexander Wang denied all the allegations and argued that the works are dramatically different, and that the plaintiff cannot use her copyright registrations to seek a monopoly over the idea of human figures wearing latex body suits.

The AFS team filed for and was granted a motion to dismiss under the Copyright Act by the US District Court for the Central District of California back in 2023. Diroma’s appeal narrowed the suit down to one drawing. Last month, the appellate court affirmed the lower courts finding that  no plausible claim of infringement was alleged because the accused Wang works were not substantially similar to the plaintiff’s work as a matter of law.

The ArentFox Schiff team included Partners Lindsay Korotkin, Neil Lloyd, Allan Anderson, and Associate Sarah Alberstein.