CollectionsAug 27, 2026
Pandora Expands ‘Talisman’ Collection as Lawsuit Continues MajorsSep 22, 2026
Foundrae’s Lawsuit Against Pandora Can Continue, Court Rules
A federal judge denied Pandora’s motion to dismiss Foundrae’s claim for copyright infringement of its medallions.
A federal court has denied Pandora’s motion to dismiss Foundrae’s lawsuit, which alleges the Danish jewelry company copied Foundrae’s medallion designs for its “Talisman” collection. Pictured is a side-by-side comparison of two medallions that Foundrae claims Pandora “copied nearly verbatim,” as per court documents. This photo was included in the initial complaint Foundrae filed in February.
New York—A federal court in New York has denied Pandora’s motion to dismiss Foundrae’s claim for copyright infringement earlier this month, allowing the lawsuit to continue.
New York-based jewelry brand Foundrae filed suit against Pandora on Feb. 17 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging that styles from Pandora’s “Talisman” collection infringed on its copyright-protected medallions.
Pandora’s Talisman collection debuted in August 2025 with 12 medallions, featuring common symbols like a lion, a rose, arrows, and celestial motifs like the sun and moon, and recently was expanded to include new designs.
Foundrae stated in its complaint that the initial Talisman collection is “so similar in look and feel to Foundrae’s signature pieces, and the marketing tactics promoting the collection so reminiscent of Foundrae’s aesthetic, that Foundrae found itself fielding inquiries from customers pointing out the similarities between Pandora’s Talisman collection and Foundrae’s medallions.”
Foundrae called out two of Pandora’s designs specifically, the “Passion” and “Balance” medallions, seen at the top of the story, claiming that they copy “nearly verbatim the protected expression of the original designs.”
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New York-based jewelry brand Foundrae filed suit against Pandora on Feb. 17 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging that styles from Pandora’s “Talisman” collection infringed on its copyright-protected medallions.
Pandora’s Talisman collection debuted in August 2025 with 12 medallions, featuring common symbols like a lion, a rose, arrows, and celestial motifs like the sun and moon, and recently was expanded to include new designs.
Foundrae stated in its complaint that the initial Talisman collection is “so similar in look and feel to Foundrae’s signature pieces, and the marketing tactics promoting the collection so reminiscent of Foundrae’s aesthetic, that Foundrae found itself fielding inquiries from customers pointing out the similarities between Pandora’s Talisman collection and Foundrae’s medallions.”
Foundrae called out two of Pandora’s designs specifically, the “Passion” and “Balance” medallions, seen at the top of the story, claiming that they copy “nearly verbatim the protected expression of the original designs.”
On Sept. 10, a federal judge denied Pandora’s motion to dismiss, filed on April 20, and said the issue of whether or not copyright infringement was committed is better left to a judge and jury.
Neither Pandora nor Foundrae responded to National Jeweler’s request for comment on the denial.
Pandora agreed that Foundrae has valid copyrights on its medallion designs, noted the judge.
However, Pandora argues that “even if it did ‘actually copy’ Foundrae’s designs—which it steadfastly denies—Foundrae’s copyright infringement claim must fail because the designs are not substantially similar as a matter of law,” as per court documents.
“At the motion to dismiss stage, the court may assume that actual copying occurred and move straight to the issue of substantial similarity between the parties’ products,” federal Judge Colleen McMahon wrote in her ruling on the motion to dismiss.
When deciding on “substantial similarity,” the court can apply the ordinary observer test, which asks if the average person would say that one design is a copy of the other.
However, when an item has both protectable and unprotectable elements, the court will usually apply the “more discerning ordinary observer test,” which asks only if the elements that are protected are substantially similar.
Pandora wants the more discerning ordinary observer test applied, while Foundrae is asking that the ordinary observer test be applied.
The courts in this circuit have disagreed as to which test to apply in jewelry design cases, McMahon noted.
“But regardless of which test the court applies, I cannot conclude, on a motion to dismiss, that Foundrae’s medallions and Pandora’s charms are not substantially similar as a matter of law,” the judge wrote.
“Though the individual features of Foundrae’s medallions might not be protectible when viewed separately, they produce a specific ‘look’ when coordinated together.”
The judge noted that Foundrae is not claiming that the crossed arrows and sun and moon elements are individually protected, but rather that its “original selection, coordination, and arrangement of those individual elements is subject to copyright protection.”
Pandora has pointed to several dissimilarities between the two collections, but one could consider these differences to be minor, wrote McMahon, and “minor differences cannot overcome the more visually dominant similarities between the designs’ total concept and feel.”
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