Law gets fashionable as designer labels learn to love litigation

Paris

LONG considered "too fluffy" for serious lawyers, fashion law has emerged in recent years as one of the most lucrative - and occasionally absurd - new battlegrounds for the legal profession.

Take, for example, a blink-and-you-miss-it shot of a basketball with what looked like Louis Vuitton symbols on it appeared for just one second in a Hyundai commercial shown during the 2010 Superbowl in the United States.

But that was enough for t…