The interest of the consumer here in competitive prices of garments using Dior designs without deception as to origin, is at least as great as the interest of plaintiffs in monopolizing the name.

If we are in fact entering the era of New Frugality, will it affect our trademark jurisprudence? In Societe Comptoir, a 1962 Second Circuit case, Alexander’s Department store sold what today would be refered to as Dior Knock-offs. From the case:

The merchandise was so described in newspaper advertisements, on hang tags attached to the garments reading, ‘Original by Christian Dior– Alexander’s Exclusive– Paris– Adaptation'”

The Court held for Alexander’s, holding that there was no confusion, as it was clearly labeled that this were copies of Dior, and not Dior originals.
I’m not sure I could prove it definitively, but I would venture that over the past ten years, the majority of circuit courts would not hold for defendant on those facts.
But I wonder if an extended economic downturn will make courts more receptive to the viewpoint in the lead-off sentence?

WSJ.com: “Recording Industry to End Litigation Strategy; Thanks, Judge Davis?”

Major news for online music geeks: The recording industry plans to lay down its litigation offensive against music pirates in favor of a more PR-friendly, if not more effective, strategy. Instead of suing thousands of people for stealing tunes via the Internet, it will rely on the cooperation of Internet-service providers

ArsTechnica: “We Just Link To Videos! won’t stave off MPAA Lawyers”:

But the key question is whether sites like Campusist are engaged in that piracy, or whether the fact that they simply link to other sites grants them immunity. This latter argument is the one routinely advanced by The Pirate Bay and other torrent trackers. But, when every link on a site leads to an infringing copy of a film, does the “Hey, I’m just linking to some stuff!” argument still carry weight?
The MPAA doesn’t think so, and yesterday it filed suits against three websites: Campusist, Movies-on-demand.tv, and Sswarez.com. The move is part of MPAA’s continuing legal campaign to target distribution sites, and the film business has yet to engage in the sort of widespread suing of individuals that has characterized the music industry’s approach.