A group of students of the Sufism branch of Islam have recently launched a protest against Italian designer Roberto Cavalli over a perfume logo that resembles a Sufi symbol with religious significance (or at least a substantive variation of that symbol).
The logo in question is the “Just Cavalli” logo, which looks similar to a sacred symbol of the Shahmaghsoudi School of Islamic Sufism, comprising two arcs linked by a horizontal line in the middle of the symbol. The only major difference between the Sufi symbol and the “Just Cavalli” logo is that the latter has been rotated by 90 degrees. “Just Cavalli” stylised text sits in substitute of the line that links the two arcs.
The Cavalli logo is designed to represent a snakebite. The connotation is meant to be of “original sin” (the temptation of the serpent in the Garden of Eden in the Book of Genesis). This is further underscored by the tagline “Just Lust” in the perfume’s ads. Students of Sufism are offended by this – the Sufi symbol giving rise to the dispute is considered sacred and a sign of purity and heart, the opposite of what the “Just Cavalli” logo represents.
From a trade mark perspective, the Sufi symbol is the subject of a US trade mark filed by an international Islamic Sufi school called Maktab Tarighat Oveyssi. Whether the dispute evolves into a trade mark oppositions or removal actions based upon the “scandalous” provisions of various national trade mark laws remains to be seen.