Here at Jamieson Law, we have a bit of a guilty pleasure – looking up celebrity trademark cases.
We hear you saying “get a life”, but we’re trademark geeks and proud (and we’ll shout this from the rooftops)!
Not only are these cases interesting to read in general, we can also use them to learn about trademarking for our own businesses…yes, we can learn from the celebs.
In this edition of ‘Trademark Battles’ we’ve got the clash of two very famous Kylie’s – Kylie Minogue VS Kylie Jenner.
Now we’re sure you know at least one of the two. They came head to head back in 2015 with a pretty hefty trademark battle.
It all started with Kylie Jenner, big Kardashian family member, trying to register the trademark ‘KYLIE’ in the US for advertising and endorsement purposes. If you don’t know, Kylie Jenner has become a big brand herself, with many a business hustle going on including her Kylie lipkits, swimwear and skincare, so trademarking definitely seems like a wise idea on her part.
However this obviously didn’t sit well with Kylie Minogue, whose team clapped back with an opposition, stating it would cause confusion and damage Minogue’s branding. They argued that Minogue already had Kylie-related trademarks in the US.
It turned a bit sour when the team cited Minogue as being an ‘internationally renowned performing artist’, and Jenner as a ‘secondary reality TV personality’…yikes!
So, who won?
Surprisingly enough, Minogue’s team actually ended up withdrawing their opposition, meaning Jenner could go ahead with her registration. Seems like they both may have agreed to a settlement, so we guess both Kylie’s won in this instance.
What can you learn from this battle? Always do your research. Although Kylie Jenner managed to register in this instance, that may not always be the case…always check for trademarks that already exist, this could cause havoc when registering your own trademark
