2.17.11 | New York, NY | Maharam, Paul Smith Group Holdings, Ltd. and Paul Smith Ltd. announced a settlement of their copyright infringement lawsuit involving the textile design “Modulating Stripe by Paul Smith".

On October 27 2010, Maharam, Paul Smith Group Holdings, Ltd. and Paul Smith Ltd. jointly filed a copyright infringement complaint against Valley Forge Fabrics in the United District Court, Southern District of New York. Under the complaint, Maharam and Paul Smith alleged that Valley Forge Fabrics had produced an unauthorized replica of the copyrighted pattern “Modulating Stripe by Paul Smith,” an original Paul Smith design produced and sold by Maharam under exclusive world-wide license. Valley Forge Fabrics has cooperated in reaching a settlement on terms satisfactory to Maharam and Paul Smith. While Valley Forge has admitted no liability, it has agreed, among other terms that are confidential, to immediately cease all production, marketing, sales and distribution of the "Modulating Stripe" design and destroy all related inventory.

Maharam’s legal action against Valley Forge Fabrics reflects a newly escalated effort to effectively protect its intellectual property rights. “We chose to proceed with this litigation to help ensure a market free of infringement, a predatory practice which is increasingly pervasive in our industry,” says Michael Maharam. “We will tenaciously protect our intellectual property rights and pursue infringements of our copyright-protected patterns, as a point of corporate policy and as a matter of obligation to our licensorsand collaborators.”