JS China, a small manufacturer of apparel, won the first round of its trademark infringement lawsuit against American Eagle Outfitters Inc.
In mid-September, JS China hit the retailer with a federal trademark suit over the ”Overslept by Aerie” line of sleepwear, which is produced by its Aerie division.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska entered a preliminary injunction barring Aerie from selling its Overslept merchandise. Aerie removed the label from its website shortly after the lawsuit was filed, but continued to carry the line in its stores.
JS China indicated that it has been selling sleepwear under the federally registered Overslept trademark since 2019, “moving nearly 1.5 million units and generating more than $3.8 million in sales.”
“JS China is gratified that the court recognized the incontestable trademark for the Overslept brand and stopped Aerie’s bad faith use of the trademark,” said Marc Greenwald, partner at the Quinn Emanuel law firm, representing the plaintiff. “They were aware of it. In October, they ran a trademark search and found JS China’s registered trademark yet they decided nevertheless to proceed with their product branding and launch, and the court found that was evidence of Aerie’s bad faith.”
The New York-based JS China manufactures women’s apparel under several brand names including Breakfast in Bed, End of Story, Grumpy & Gorgeous and Not a Morning Person. JS China wholesales its merchandise to such stores as Charlotte Russe, Burlington and Urban Planet.
According to the preliminary court order, Aerie is required to stop selling merchandise labeled Overslept right away, though removing the goods from the stores would require a lot of manpower hours. Aerie could decide to change the labels on the products, rather than remove them. Many of the pajamas have heat-sealed labels, which would have to be covered so consumers couldn’t see them, Greenwald said. “It’s not a copyright case involving the design,” Greenwald said. “It’s the branding” that’s being contested.
If a settlement is not reached, the lawsuit could go to trial and the judge could call for a permanent injunction and/or damages for infringement. American Eagle also can appeal.
An American Eagle Outfitters representative said: “As a matter of policy, we do not comment on pending litigation. However, given that the judge has directed the parties to work together on next steps we feel reporting on this story at this time is premature.”
According to a transcript from the hearing held Monday in Manhattan federal court, Judge Preska said: “Of particular relevance, the court finds that the defendant adopted the infringing Overslept mark in bad faith. We know that the defendant admitted that it knew in the fall of 2025 about the plaintiff’s Overslept mark, which is more than eight months before it launched its mark. We know from the record that in October of 2025, defendant undertook a trademark, which turned up, of course, plaintiff’s mark, and we have in the record a notice that defendant saw plaintiff’s mark in connection with plaintiff’s sleepwear online in September of 2025. The trademark search also shows that plaintiff was the only company in the country using Overslept as a brand in connection with this young people’s sleepwear. There has been no explanation in the record as to why defendant went ahead then with that knowledge and used the Overslept mark in connection with exactly congruent items sold in the same line of commerce to the same customers.”
The judge also said that “irreparable harm” to JS China “was entirely foreseeable in light of the defendant’s apparent intention to flood the market in the upcoming holiday season.”
The lawsuit is a disruption for Aerie considering the peak holiday selling season is nearing and sleepwear is a popular gifting category, although the retailer does sell a range of sleepwear besides Overslept.
Two weeks ago at the Wharton Baker Retailing Center CEO Summit in Manhattan, Jennifer Foyle, president and executive creative director of the Aerie and American Eagle brands, talked up Overslept by Aerie. “Now we haven’t launched [Overslept by Aerie] necessarily as a brand yet, but we’re certainly allocating more square footage to it because it’s doing that well right now,” she told the audience.
Sleepwear, she said, started “taking hold” last year at Aerie, prompting the Overslept by Aerie launch.
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