Vogue has rolled out its latest batch of Dogue covers – but more interesting than the dogs and their famous owners is an ongoing fight over who gets to use the Dogue name. Behind Vogue’s third slate of Dogue cover is a clash between the Condé Nast-owned publication and an indie dog-fashion magazine, whose use of DOGUE, Vogue maintains, infringes its famous VOGUE trademarks.
The dispute got its start in December 2025, when Condé Nast filed suit against Tasty Work, LLC, the company behind Dogue, in the Central District of California. In its complaint, Condé Nast alleges that Tasty Work is infringing its VOGUE trademarks by publishing a print and digital dog-fashion magazine under the DOGUE name. Condé Nast’s case centers on its longstanding rights in VOGUE. It points to the similarity between the VOGUE and DOGUE names and the look of Tasty Work’s covers, along with its references to the publication as “inspired by Vogue” and “in style of Vogue.
Condé Nast maintains that consumers are likely to believe that Dogue is endorsed by or affiliated with Vogue, and sets out claims for trademark infringement, false designation of origin, dilution, and unfair competition.
The Other Dogue
Tasty Work has since disputed Condé Nast’s claims. In its April answer and counterclaims, the company denied that consumers are likely to confuse its publication with Vogue and argued that it is actually the senior user of the DOGUE mark. In particular, Tasty Work says that it began publishing DOGUE content in 2019, launched a print magazine in 2021, and applied to register a DOGUE logo with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2022.
By the time Vogue began using DOGUE for a series of celebrity-dog covers in August 2024, Tasty Work says it had produced thousands of digital DOGUE covers and built a following around dog-centered fashion editorial content.
In its counterclaims, Tasty Work accuses Condé Nast of trademark infringement and unfair competition, advancing a reverse confusion theory: Vogue’s later – and far more prominent – use of DOGUE is causing consumers to associate Tasty Work’s earlier publication with Vogue. Tasty Work claims that confusion has already occurred, pointing to emails about how to enter Vogue’s Dogue competition and social media users tagging its account in connection with Vogue’s campaigns.
When Is Dogue a Trademark?
There is a potential complication for Tasty Work’s counterclaims: Vogue’s use of Dogue may not amount to trademark use. Vogue has used the name for digital covers, editorial content, and its Dogue Cover Star Competition, rather than as a mark identifying the source of goods or services – the source is still Vogue. That is distinct from Condé Nast’s case against Tasty Work, which is grounded in its longstanding trademark rights in VOGUE.
Condé Nast has not yet answered Tasty Work’s counterclaims, but the distinction could provide a response to its infringement theory. Trademark infringement generally requires use of the challenged designation in a source-identifying way; simply using a term as the title or name of editorial content does not necessarily qualify.
Tasty Work is asking the court to declare it the senior user of DOGUE and bar Condé Nast from using DOGUE in the U.S. If Vogue’s Dogue covers and competition are not trademark uses, Tasty Work’s earlier claimed rights in DOGUE would not necessarily give it the ability to stop them.
THE BOTTOM LINE: Vogue’s latest Dogue covers arrive while the fight over the name remains underway. Condé Nast is seeking to stop Tasty Work from using DOGUE based on its longstanding rights in VOGUE, while Tasty Work claims superior rights in DOGUE and wants to bar Condé Nast from using the name in the U.S.
The case is Advance Magazine Publishers Inc. v. Tasty Work, LLC, 2:25-cv-11579 (C.D. Cal.)
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