Lindberg and Rodenstock in copyright infringement dispute

Battle lines have been drawn after Danish eyewear manufacturer Lindberg alleged that frame and lens producer Rodenstock infringed upon its proprietary design and trade dress copyrights for models in the new Mercedes Benz collection.

In letters to Mercedes Benz and Rodenstock posted on the Lindberg website, the company’s CEO Henrik Lindberg highlighted technical and design similarities between the Mercedes Benz models M 6031 and M 2048 and frames in the Lindberg Strip 7000 and Strip 8000 product lines. He also made reference to Rodenstock receiving a design award for the frames in question and described a self-nomination for a design that was ‘not its own’ as ‘shameless.’