Patagonia and Nordstrom Settle Counterfeit Lawsuit
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Nordstrom and Patagonia have settled their differences outside of court.
The two companies filed a joint dismissal last week for a case that Patagonia brought against Nordstrom in May 2023, alleging that Nordstrom had infringed on trademarks and copyrights owned by the company by selling counterfeited goods in Nordstrom Rack stores.
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The two previously had a business relationship, where Nordstrom “was an authorized dealer of Patagonia Inc.’s apparel.” Patagonia said in its complaint that it had “recently elected not to renew the dealer agreement with Nordstrom,” but alleged that Nordstrom “began selling counterfeit Patagonia products at Nordstrom Rack stores shortly after the end of the years-long dealer relationship.”
One of Patagonia’s main gripes with the purported counterfeits was that, while tags on the garments made claims about organic cotton, further scrutiny of the labels revealed that the garments had been made with “low-quality polyester.” This, it said, caused “incalculable and irreparable damage to Patagonia’s goodwill” and misled consumers to purchase counterfeit products that “prey on Patagonia’s reputation.”
Patagonia further alleged that Nordstrom failed to recall “thousands” of counterfeit sweatshirts and T-shirts. In its response to Patagonia’s complaint, Nordstrom said it “immediately pulled all remaining inventory from its stores” and terminated its relationship with Razaz Group, which it said is the third-party supplier that the company purchased the items from.
Nordstrom said in the response that it had purchased those products in earnest.
“To the extent any of the products at issue were not genuine Patagonia products, Nordstrom had no knowledge of this at the time these products were purchased from Razaz Group and sold from the Nordstrom Rack stores,” the company claimed.
Nordstrom also noted it had filed a third-party complaint against Razaz Group. Though Patagonia and Nordstrom have settled their differences, the dismissal does not include the complaint Nordstrom filed against its former supplier.
A spokesperson said the legal proceedings have been settled with no admission of liability for Nordstrom, further noting that the company’s top priority remains the quality of the products it offers up to consumers.
Patagonia did not return Sourcing Journal’s request for comment on the settlement.