Ybry vs Kapsule: bottle designs too similar?

Bottle designs confusingly similar?

Following up on yesterday post about the Ybry perfume bottle…

…in 2008 Karl Lagerfeld launched his Kapsule fragrance, promoting the modern geometry of a very similar bottle design.

The brand name was “capsule” — only spelled in the German style with a “K” (like kanister). The “K” ostensibly derived from the “K” in “Karl.”

“Although Lutz Herrmann and Karl Lagerfeld claim the design, the bottle itself is an exact copy of the famous Ybry bottles.”

I disagree with Wikipedia’s assertion above that the Kapsule bottle design is an exact copy of Simon Jarosslawski’s 1926 Ybry bottle design, but are the 2 bottle designs too close for comfort?

They are not identical, but they are confusingly similar in a number of ways.  Here we have two different perfume brands with product lines packaged in multi-color square bottles, each with a circular medallion in the center, and a rectangular cap in the corner at a 45° angle.

First brought to light in 2008 by Octavian Coifan, I suspect that the reason the infringing bottle design never led to any “Ybry vs Kapsule” lawsuits may have been simply that Ybry’s design patent from 1926 would have expired long ago.

Perhaps it’s a mute point. The Ybry brand still exists. The Kapsule line appears to have been discontinued.