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Hyacinthe Rigaud's famous 1701 painting of Louis XIV clearly shows Quatorze wearing red, high-healed shoes. Why doesn't that bounder, Christian Louboutin, go and sue the sun king's ghost? Or is that not how prior art works?

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The intent of the red sole infringer was to make people think they were Louboutin. It wasn’t red soles for red soles’ sake: it was to intentionally dilute (or piggy-back upon) the Louboutin Design. Just like someone calling a restaurant MacDonalds instead of McDonald’s.

Louboutin's application specifies high-heeled shoes with red soles, ie. the colour of the rest of the shoe is irrelevant. The painting shows high-heeled shoes where the irrelevant part is reddish and the relevant part isn't shown. IANAL and not sure whether it could be relevant if&when, but as it stands it's plainly irrelevant.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Louis_XI...

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