Minogue vs Jenner in battle to claim ‘Kylie’
The Australian singer has objected to the reality star’s bid to trademark her name, writes Justin Wm. Moyer
THERE was Hamilton versus Burr. There was Foreman versus Ali. And now that Kylie Minogue has challenged Kylie Jenner’s attempt to trademark her name, there is Kylie versus Kylie. The two cultural giants are going to the matt – or, at least, to the US Patent and Trademark Office – now that Minogue has filed a notice of opposition to Jenner’s attempt, initiated last year, to trademark variations of her very famous handle.
And although the battle will be fought on paper in a federal building in Alexandria, Virginia, blood may flow before either the teenage reality star or the 47-year-old Australian singer falls.
The notice of opposition began by listing the many ways in which Minogue has trademarked variations of the name “Kylie” since 2003 for the many products produced by her empire.
Her trademarks allegedly cover, among other products, musical recordings, clothing, wallets, wristwatches, perfumes, body oil, essential oils, skin moisturiser, candles, bubble bath, bath salts, hand soap, hair gels and hair sprays products.
Then the notice established Minogue’s bona fides. It noted that she is an “internationally renowned performing artist, humanitarian, and breast cancer activist known worldwide simply as ‘Kylie’,” that she “has been in the entertainment industry since 1979 and launched her first album, titled KYLIE, in 1988, that her hit TheLocomotion went to number three on the Billboard Hot 100, that she won a Grammy for the song ComeIntoMy World, that she has sold over 80 million records and that she owns the website www.kylie.com.
But Minogue is no mere pop star, the notice said. She is a humanitarian who beat a deadly disease.
“Kylie is a breast cancer survivor, whose public health crisis and activism for increased research and public awareness has produced what has been called ‘The Kylie Effect’, in spurring early detection among young women worldwide.
“Kylie has also been active both in the US and around the world in a variety of high publicity humanitarian efforts, including American Foundation for Aids Research and Fashion Targets Breast Cancer, a charitable initiative of the Council of Fashion Designers of America.”
Then it was time to score some points against Kylie the pretender.
The notice quickly went fangs out, calling Jenner, an 18-year-old with more than 80 million followers on social media, “a 2015 home-schooled graduate of Laurel Springs School in Ojai, California”.
Jenner was little more than an also-ran in her ubiquitous family, the notice said.
“Ms Jenner is a secondary reality television personality who appeared on the television series KeepingUpWiththe Kardashians as a supporting character to her half-sisters Kim, Khloe, and Kourtney Kardashian,” it noted.
It also disparaged Jenner’s use of Instagram. “Ms Jenner is active on social media where her photographic exhibitionism and controversial posts have drawn criticism from the Disability Rights and African American communities,” it read.
Those in need of a Kylie Jenner update, take note: Jenner was heavily criticised last year for wearing corn rows and for appearing on the cover of Interview magazine in a wheelchair.
What would be the result of this lessthan-Kylie’s attempts to steal “Kylie”?
A “connection with services that are confusingly similar” and clear “overlaps with the customers and consumers of the opposer’s goods and services”.
Although this may sound harsh, a post at “The Fashion Law: A Leading Source for Fashion Law and the Business of Fashion” explained that the notice’s attempts to belittle Jenner were “more than a diss, so to speak”.
“A trademark has to actually serve as an identifier of source in order to amount to something in the minds of consumers,” the post read.
“This means that the public must recognise the trademark at hand as associated with the brand at hand. And this is where Minogue’s legal team argues that there is a problem.”
As the Patent and Trademark Office mulls the conundrum, so does Twitter.
“That b--ch don’t own everything – not everyone named Kylie should bow down to her!” one Jenner critic wrote.
“The old one must sit down,” another wrote in support of Jenner. “She had her whole life to do it. It’s not Jenner’s fault she didn’t act earlier.”
Uproxx’s analysis of the case noted that Minogue and her team “do have a point”.
“The Kardashians aren’t exactly a positive thing to be accidentally associated with,” Alex Galbraith of Uproxx wrote. “Beyond the surface-level hatred by hordes of people, it does look like their brand is in decline with or without Kanye. You don’t stay successful for as long as Minogue has by hitching your wagon to a sickly ox.”
A representative for Jenner has so far had no comment on Minogue’s filing.
This tweet from Minogue, meanwhile, seemed to drive her point home:
“Hello… My name is KYLIE”. – The Washington Post