In the heartiest helping of streetwear beef to date, Supreme is taking Leah McSweeney of Married to the MOB to court over her "Supreme Bitch" merchandise. An obvious flip of the box logo, founder James Jebbia is purportedly seeking $10 million in damages for copyright infringement. New York Mag picked up on the story, but instead of talking about the issues at hand, simply outlined a bunch of Supreme logo flips and concluded with a missive about the lawsuit.
McSweeney responded to the suit on her blog today, saying: "Bottom line is this: I don't think Supreme should be able to squash free speech or my right to utilize parody in my design aesthetic. It's one of the most powerful ways for me to comment on the boy's club mentality that's pervasive in the streetwear/skater world. The fact that Supreme is coming after MOB and me personally is just another example of the hostility that MOB—the first women's street wear brand—has faced from Day 1. And it's why the Supreme Bitch message is so important."
Civil liberties lawyer and former ACLU director Normal Siegel has taken on McSweeney's case and signed on to act as co-counsel, along with Edward Rosenthal of Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz PC, a firm specializing in trademark law. McSweeney concluded her statement saying: "This isn't a fight I went out looking for, but I have no choice other than to fight back. Because right now, it's about more than just a T-shirt!"
The fight hasn't been a pretty one, with Supreme telling retailers like Urban Outfitters and Karmaloop to stop carrying McSweeney's "Queen Bee" T-shirt, which made its debut in 2004 as part of Married to the MOB's first collection. We pored through the entire court docket, and brought you these legal gems. Brush up on your torts people, here are The 12 Greatest Moments of Supreme's Legal Battle With Leah McSweeney.