Kim Kardashian’s SKKN Brand Gets Under Another Company’s Skin In Trademark Feud
Oops. It doesn’t seem to be all smooth-sailing for Kim Kardashian’s latest beauty venture, SKKN BY KIM.
This week, a Brooklyn-based aesthetician, Cydnie Lunsford, filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against the media mogul’s brand over its name. Lunsford said her company has been using the name SKKN+ for its products since August 2018.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Lunsford alleged that should Kardashian be allowed to continue marketing her products under SKKN, it would “quickly overshadow” the customer base she’s worked to build, and could cause “irreparable brand damage as a result of this confusion.”
Naturally, it’s rather easy to see how a customer would confuse SKKN BY KIM and SKKN+, though Kardashian’s lawyer, Michael Rhodes, told E! News he felt his client was not responsible for any wrongdoing.
Instead, Rhodes said Lunsford’s lawsuit was more about “trying to leverage a settlement” by bringing the celebrity’s name into disrepute.
As per the US Patent and Trademark Office, it was recorded that Lunsford filed for a patent application under SKKN+ on March 28, 2021, while Kardashian did so for SKKN BY KIM two days later.
At the moment, the lawsuit is still pending, though Lunsford has demanded an undisclosed sum of damages and a jury trial.
View this post on Instagram
[via The Los Angeles Times and E! News, cover image via SKKN BY KIM and ID 166032339 © Featureflash | Dreamstime.com]
