Nirvana settles lawsuit against Marc Jacobs over band’s smiley face logo

Image: pieceofshirt/Instagram

LOS ANGELES – Fashion label Marc Jacobs, artist Robert Fisher and Nirvana’s company have agreed to settle a Los Angeles lawsuit over use of a smiley face logo the grunge-rock band placed on its t-shirts, according to court papers obtained Wednesday.

In December 2018, the general partnership which controls Nirvana‘s copyrights sued the designer for allegedly lifting the logo for the fashion brand’s Bootleg Redux Grunge collection. Fisher then filed a motion to claim authorship of the design.

In papers filed Tuesday in Los Angeles federal court, attorneys for the parties told the court that mediation had been successful and a settlement agreement would be finalized within 21 days. A post-mediation status conference was scheduled for August.

If the parties file a request for dismissal by Aug. 16, the matter will be taken off calendar, according to a docket item.

Nirvana’s attorneys alleged that the company has used the smiley face design and logo continuously since 1992 to identify its music and licensed merchandise. The design has been licensed for use on dozens of T-shirts, shirts, hats, hoodies, bags, backpacks, glasses, wallets and other items, many of which have sold for decades, both with and without use of the band name adjacent to the smiley face design, attorneys said.

Attorneys for Nirvana LLC – an entity consisting of former band members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, plus Kurt Cobain‘s widow Courtney Love and daughter Frances Bean Cobain – contend that late Nirvana leader Cobain created the logo. New York-based designer Marc Jacobs argued that Nirvana LLC lacked rights to the logo.

FILE PHOTO: Krist Novoselic, left, and Dave Grohl, center, former members of the band Nirvana, pose with Butch Vig, producer of their landmark 1991 album “Nevermind,” Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2011, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

In another Nirvana-related lawsuit, the band’s partnership is in negotiations to settle a 2021 suit brought by a Los Angeles man pictured as a naked infant over 30 years ago on the cover of the groundbreaking Nirvana album “Nevermind.”

Spencer Elden sought personal injury damages from the now-defunct group’s company, various record companies and art directors on the grounds that he was a victim of child pornography when, as a 4-month-old baby, he was photographed naked in a pool for the cover of the multimillion-selling 1991 album. The district court dismissed the action as barred by the 10-year statute of limitations, but a federal appeals court reversed the dismissal last year and sent the case back to Los Angeles federal court for further proceedings.

Nirvana LLC is a partnership formed in 1997 to manage the band’s affairs following Cobain’s death. Cobain committed suicide on April 5, 1994, at age 27 in Seattle, Washington. (With CNS report)