Retail

Juicy Couture, the California apparel company made famous by the likes of Britney Spears and other Hollywood elite, has filed a lawsuit against Victoria's Secret. In the filing, Juicy Couture accuses Victoria's Secret of stealing their idea of putting their name on the backsides of women's clothing.

The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday in Manhattan, in which Juicy Couture claims:

"The similarities are not inadvertent and are designed to capitalize on the success of Juicy Couture."

Further suggesting that Victoria's Secret is out to steal and capitalize on all their ideas, Juicy Couture also accuses them of selling clothes wrapped in the shape of lollipops, bon bons and ice cream cones in order to mimic the success of their Sweet Shoppe packaging.

But that's not all! The suit also claims that VS is using deceptive trade practices, and is trying to capitalize on the success of Juicy Couture.

Juicy is asking for the judge to order all of the offending clothes destroyed, and is asking for triple damages, or three times the profits that VS made through the sale of its allegedly stolen ideas.

The boycott of the world's most popular auction website - eBay.com - which began last week has been extended for at least another week, if not longer. Both sellers and buyers alike are boycotting the site in response to changes in eBay's feedback system and listing fees. While the boycott has been downplayed by both eBay officials and others who cite numerous failed strikes in the past, this strike is already beginning to have a major impact on the company and may force them to reconsider the changes.

According to data released by USAToday on Monday, the number of auctions on eBay have fallen 13% to just 13 million listings, down from 18 million. But there's another effect of the boycott that hasn't yet been quantified - the PayPal effect.

eBay purchased the online payment processing company in October 2002, arguably the most popular payment method for eBay auctions. So in addition to earning revenue from auctions, eBay also earns money by taking a cut of transactions processed through PayPal. With a reduction in auctions and items sold, it can be assumed that the company will also feel the effects through a reduced number of transactions at PayPal.

The original protest thread posted on eBay's discussion board is now over 209 pages long, and is growing rapidly. Scores of eBay sellers have "signed" the pledge agreeing to honor the strike, and have subsequently stopped listing new auctions, shut down their eBay stores, and have altogether ceased their activities on the site. Some have even put up virtual "closed for business" signs in their eBay stores and eBay profiles, alerting potential buyers that they will not be selling during the strike.

So where are all the sellers going? Many have relocated their listings to a site called OnlineAuction.com, which also happens to be accessible by typing in ola.com.

Offering a simple $8.00 per month flat-rate fee to list auctions, and no individual listing fees or final value assessments, OLA is a much more appealing option in light of the policy and fee changes at eBay. OLA is no small potatoes either - as of Monday, their total number of online auctions was hovering near 12 million. With eBay at 13 million and falling, the gap is closing quickly. Many eBay sellers have taken up residence here, and have begun directing buyers to their new auctions at OLA.

As far as payment processing goes, the strike also includes a boycott of PayPal. The next biggest payment processing system, which is simple to use and takes far less in fees, is Google Checkout. Users can store their payment details easily in a Google Profile, for quick and easy payments. Sellers can easily accept payments, which are directly deposited into your bank account by Google, unlike PayPal where it is held in limbo until you cash out.

By ANN DONAHUE
Billboard.com

LOS ANGELES - Gap is launching an online advertising campaign featuring music by the Raveonettes, Dntel, Swizz Beatz, the Blakes and Marie Digby in the hopes of stirring up some viral music video mojo among its younger customers, Billboard has learned.

For the "Sound of Color" campaign, each act was asked to write a song inspired by an assigned hue. These songs were then turned into music videos by up-and-coming commercial and music video directors, including Chris Do, Mary Fagot and James Frost, Tom Gatsoulis, Russ Lamourex and Mike Maguire.

The songs and videos will be available for streaming and download at soundofcolor.com starting Feb. 15. The campaign, developed jointly by Gap and multimedia producer Rehab, will run for one month and also be placed as ads on several music Web sites. After 30 days, the artists will retain the rights to their songs for their own use, including possible inclusion on future albums.

"We were looking for new ways to connect with people, and so much of today's music scene is digital," Gap director of advertising Jamie Gersch says. "This spring and summer, our campaigns are very much about color. And since that means so many emotions, we thought it was a great place to start with musicians."

Philip Green, a billionaire businessman who owns some of the UK's largest retailers, is said to be lining up Kate Moss to launch his Topshop brand in New York City. Kate, 33, has become synonymous with the brand, and is such an important part of the brand that she has her own office at the company's London headquarters.

Kate's next collection will hit Topshop stores in March, but the brand's inaugural US store in NYC won't likely open its doors until September.

An inside source revealed to the Daily Mail, "Philip is very keen to get Kate on board when he launches Topshop in America. She has worked very well for Topshop. She has not landed herself in any trouble, which has impressed Philip."

CompUSA is officially going out of business, having been sold to an affiliate of the restructuring firm Gordon Bros. After closing down about half of their stores earlier this year, the decision has been now made to shut down all 103 stores in the chain.

CompUSA won't officially close its doors until after the holidays, which means that employees will get to keep their jobs a little bit longer, and consumers will likely benefit from deep discount sales. An undisclosed number of the stores will be sold to other retailers.

Gordon Bros. is currently discussing with various parties, the sale of stores in key retail markets, as well as some of CompUSA's other assets, including their online retail unit CompUSA.com, and technical support service business CompUSA TechPro.

Dooney & Burke, most famous for their line of handbags, are continuing their five year tradition of introducing their trend collection targeted to today's youth. They've also just unveiled the new face of Dooney & Burke - "Heroes" star Hayden Panettiere.

In addition to being the new spokeswoman for the purse-makers, they've also collaborated with the actress to release a new bag - The Hayden Bag.

For this current season, Hayden described the bag that she envisioned: a large leather shoulder bag with puffy pleats, a buckle closure and great style.

Working with Dooney & Burke's design studio in Florence, Italy, Peter Dooney and his design team took Hayden's vision and turned it into the limited edition Hayden Bag, which will retail for about $500.

Hayden Panettiere follows in the footsteps of other Lindsay Lohan, Mischa Barton, and Emma Roberts, who have all been previous spokeswomen for the brand.

Children as young as ten have been found working in a textile factory in India under conditions that have been described as close to slavery, producing clothes headed to Gap Kids. UK newspaper The Observer spoke with some of the kids working in the factory, who described long hours of unwaged work, threats, and beatings.

Gap claimed to be unaware that the clothing, which was intended for the Christmas market, has been improperly subcontracted to a sweatshop utilizing child labor. Gap thus announced that they had withdrawn the clothing involved while they investigate breaches of the ethical code that they imposed three years ago.

The factory in question was discovered in the Shahpur Jat area of Dehli, where Observer reporters found the children in filthy conditions, working on a pile of beaded children's blouses with serial numbers that Gap admitted matched their inventory. The tops, which were hand-stitched, were to be sold for about $40 in stores. They were destined for store shelves in the U.S. and Europe within the next 7 days, just in time to be sold to Christmas shoppers.

This week, retired tennis ace Andre Agassi filed a lawsuit again Target Corp. (TGT), the nation's second largest discount retrailer, for the unauthorized use of his "name, image, likeness and other attributes" associated with his namesake on a pair of men's sandals. By the sounds of things, Target isn't even disputing the charge.

A spokesman for Target said that the company has "made every effort to re brand the merchandise in our stores and on Target.com," and is continuing to "rectify the situation."

Because Target also sells their merchandise through Amazon.com, the sandals were also sold there. Agassi's name was attached to approximately 52,000 pairs of the sandals.

Shame on you Target for trying to pull a fast one!