Nirvana’s iconic smiley face logo has been a staple of the band’s brand since 1991, when the band debuted it during promotion for their album, Nevermind. Now, a long-winded lawsuit against Marc Jacobs over the iconic image will be ending in a settlement.
Back in 2018, the band sued Marc Jacobs over the logo, claiming that the design house allegedly took a copy of the logo and replaced “Nirvana” with “Heaven,” and replaced the crossed out eyes with the brand’s initials. Nirvana’s lawyers stated, “Defendants’ use of Nirvana’s copyrighted image on and to promote its products is intentional, and is part and parcel of a wider campaign to associate [the Grunge line] with Nirvana, one of the founders of the ‘grunge’ musical genre.” (via Billboard)
According to Billboard, the band’s lawyers claimed that the logo was allegedly created by the late Kurt Cobain. However, a former Geffen art director, Robert Fisher, claimed that it was allegedly himself who designed the smiley face. Fisher’s lawyers went on to allege that “For 30 years now, Nirvana has reaped enormous profits from Mr. Fisher’s works through the sale of a wide range of products. Assisted by a team of lawyers and managers, Nirvana was able to do so without any compensation to Mr. Fisher by falsely claiming authorship and ownership.”
Since then, the debate has continued, but Nirvana’s lawyers still maintain that Cobain was the one who allegedly created the image. According to Billboard, they have argued that if Fisher was the one who allegedly made the smile face, that would have happened when he would have been employed by Geffen. This would make Fisher’s alleged contributions “work for hire,” and would mean that the label would have all rights to the image.
Judge John A. Kronstadt agreed to this point back in December, according to Billboard. Fisher has since tried to appeal this decision, but Kronstadt declined the motion, stating that Fisher needed to wait until Nirvana and Marc Jacobs went to trial to do that.
Now, years of litigation have been resolved in a settlement. According to Billboard, attorneys on all three sides have agreed to accept the mediator’s proposal to end the case. The settlement will be formalized within 21 days, and no terms of have been disclosed yet.
The lawsuit isn’t the only news we’ve seen involving Nirvana lately. Their album Nevermind was recently listed in the top 10 of Apple Music’s 100 Best Albums of All Time
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