Is The North Face‘s near total overpriced puffy jacket dominance threatened by an 18-year-old college student who sells parody t-shirts, fleece jackets and shorts? Apparently!

From ABC News:

In an Aug. 14 letter sent to Winkelmann’s St. Louis-area home, Jordan LaVine, a lawyer for The North Face, wrote that the companies’ logos are similar enough to possibly cause “consumer confusion as to the source, sponsorship or affiliation of particular problems and services that could dilute or tarnish the distinctive quality of the famous and distinctive TNFAC marks.”

The company wants him to stop selling, producing and marketing his product, and to drop his application for The South Butt LLC and its logo. He is somewhat disinclined to do so.

The kid’s lawyer, a friend of the family, responded:

“I am compelled to respectfully disagree with the posture or assertion that ‘The South Butt’ would in any way give rise to confusion on the part of any person,” Watkins wrote. “In fact, the sense of parody employed by Jimmy within the context of his South Butt undertakings clearly demonstrate a respectful, if not flattering ‘anti-North Face’ posture designed in all respects to distinguish itself from any and all North Face products.”

The North Face was not reached for comment by ABC.

The North Face vs. The South Butt: Entrepreneurial Teen Undaunted by Lawsuit Threat [ABC News]

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