Robert Lopez Entangled with Aeropostale Again Over “Lower East Side” Trademark

Robert Lopez is unstoppable. The litigious Clinton Street resident has waged epic David-vs-Goliath battles against corporate fashion brands eager to cash in on the neighborhood name. Unfortunately for them, Lopez owns the trademark to “Lower East Side,” and has since the mid-nineties. Previous legal pursuits to protect the grassroots brand included cases against J. Crew, Urban Outfitters, Payless ShoeSource, Gap, Inc., and Aeropostale.

Now the Aeropostale case is back to the forefront. We reached out to Lopez for comment, and this is his response:

After resolving my dispute with Aeropsotale several months later and ending the March 24th action, I was forced to sue Aeropsotale once again over its sale of a new LOWER EAST SIDE product it introduced and was offering for sale at its various retail stores. More interestingly, in my latest action against Aeropostale I added its attorneys as Defendants for Fraud based upon written and verbal representations it had made regarding the amount of clothing products Aeropostale had actually ever manufactured bearing the LOWER EAST SIDE mark in the course of us resolving the earlier dispute.

The lawfirm is a high powered Madison Avenue lawfirm named Katten Muchin Rosenman, LLP and in addition to the lawfirm being named as a defendant in the lawsuit I also named one of its individual attorneys Karen Artz Ash as a defendant for fraud. Ms. Ash is the head and co-chairperson of the firms intellectual property department and has over 25 years of experience in the law and is a frequent author of many legal articles that can be found on the internet and in legal publications. Ms. Ash has been named in legal circles as a super lawyer and as a Pro Se Plaintiff I am up against some of the most knowlegeable and skilled attorneys in the country and I am doing a great job in giving them a challenge over the LOWER EAST SIDE trademark dispute as they have once again violated my rights.

This billion dollar clothing company and its high-powered lawyers think they can step all over the lil guy but I’m not going for that. I guess they havent learned or seen how aggresive I have been with shutting down all these other companies that have been using the LOWER EAST SIDE mark but I’m not going away and they are realizing that they have a problem on their hands. I have also added claims of trademark infringement for my seperately registered trademark LES NYC which was not the subject of the first lawsuit. Their latest t-shirt that resulted in me bringing a second action against them includes LOWER EAST SIDE NY.