Kardashian perfume stinks of TM infringement, says marketing company
Reality TV star Kim Kardashian West has found herself at the centre of yet another IP lawsuit in the US, this time centring on her latest line of perfumes.
Mobile marketing company Vibes Media filed the complaint for trademark infringement and unfair competition at the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, on Wednesday, July 18.
Vibes said it has been using its trademarked logo (US number 4,352,618), which features the word ‘Vibes’ in a speech bubble, since 2011. The logo is registered in class 42 for services for distributing marketing materials.
Through online retail platform KKW Fragrance, Kardashian sells perfume and other cosmetics, including the KKW Kimoji line of products, which was launched earlier this week. The line features three fragrance products: Vibes, Peachy, and Cherry.
The Vibes perfume comes in a bottle shaped like a speech bubble with the word ‘Vibes’ written across the front of the bottle. According to the KKW website, the perfume is a “joyful, irresistible, and lively fragrance” which retails at $45.
However, the Vibes bottle is “a close facsimile of the registered ‘Vibes’ logo”, the marketing company alleged. Vibes said the fragrance also comes in packaging “emblazoned with the infringing logo”, and added that Kardashian is using the bottle’s image on social media to promote her new perfume line.
“There is a high likelihood of reverse confusion as a result of defendant’s use of such a confusingly similar logo,” Vibes said, particularly as Kardashian is affiliated with high-profile celebrities.
The company claimed that Kardashian intentionally copied the ‘Vibes’ logo to “improperly and unfairly trade on the substantial goodwill” that the marketing company has generated.
Vibes has asked the court for an injunction to stop KKW from advertising and selling any products bearing a design confusingly similar to the registered ‘Vibes’ logo.
The marketing company also requested triple damages for wilful infringement and attorneys’ fees, in addition to a disgorgement of KKW’s profits.
Kardashian reportedly made $5 million in the first five minutes after her new Kimoji fragrances were released, according to fashion magazine Cosmopolitan.
The Kardashian family are no strangers to IP disputes.
In July 2017, Danish makeup artist Kirsten Kjaer Weis accused Kardashian of infringing her trademark-protected beauty products.
Kardashian’s half-sister, Kylie Jenner, was accused by UK-based artist Sara Pope of infringing the copyright of a photograph featuring neon lips in the same month.
Jenner was more recently accused of trademark infringement by a collective of graffiti artists over the name of her internet radio programme.
Another Kardashian sister, Khloé Kardashian, became tangled up in a copyright row over a photo she posted on Instagram in April 2017, and Kendall Jenner (Kardashian’s half-sister) found herself at the centre of a copyright dispute over some t-shirts a few months later.
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