LV – Licores do Vale / Facebook
Tânia Afonso and André Ferreira
The famous luxury brand alleged that LV – Licores do Vale was violating copyright and using its intellectual property. The court ruled in favor of the Portuguese businessmen.
The small Minho brand “LV – Licores do Vale”, from Monção, won in court a case opened by the French luxury giant Louis Vuitton. At issue were allegations of intellectual property infringement.
According to , the decision of the Intellectual Property Court, published on May 4, proved producer André Ferreira right and validated the trademark registration requested in August 2024. Louis Vuitton contested the use of the acronym “LV”, claiming “brand imitation” and risk of unfair competition, due to the visual similarities between the logos of the two brands.
The French company argued that the symbol created for “LV – Licores do Vale” could confuse consumerspointing out affinities between the products sold and highlighting the logo design, composed of the letters “L” and “V”. The Portuguese brand’s emblem was developed by Tânia Afonso, André Ferreira’s girlfriend, who created the visual identity as part of an academic work related to a business plan.
“Fortunately, we won. It was more than a year of suffering on our part”, said Tânia Afonso, 26 years old, highlighting that the decision represents a huge personal and symbolic victory. “Louis Vuitton didn’t buy the L and V of the alphabet. OL and V belong to everyone”, he added.
André Ferreira guarantees that there was never any intention to imitate the French brand and admits that the legal process caused him great anxiety. “It was scary. We never thought about copying anything”, he stated.
The couple explains that the brand’s name came from the combination of “Longos Vales”, André’s land, and “Vale de Mouro”, Tânia’s town. The logo ended up taking on a life of its own and began to be used to sell liqueurs, jams, honey and cookies at craft fairs and local markets.
Despite the strain caused by the legal dispute, the case ended give international projection to small businesses. After the matter was reported in 2025, the couple received hundreds of messages of support from countries such as Brazil, Mexico, Canada and the United States.
“The support we had was incredible”, recalls André Ferreira, admitting that the controversy brought unexpected notoriety to the brand.
