Is Your Name, Really Your Name?
Every Tom, Dick and Harry has a name. Something of great significance bestowed upon a person at birth. Even if it is something as common as, well, Tom, Dick, or Harry, everyone is special and has the right to use their name with pride.
However, it has recently been a game of who deserves it more for a name owned by thousands of people all over the world. In April 2014, the battle of the Kylies began.
When reality television icon and social media star Kylie Jenner applied to trademark her first name ‘Kylie’, it came as no surprise to the world and especially to her fans. As if the Kardashian Clan did not own enough of the world, they are coming after the rights to their first names as well.
If everyone had a dollar for every Kylie they had met, much of the world’s population would be walking around with a fair amount of change jingling in their pockets. However, the idea of trademarking such a common name (with uniqueness being a necessary quality of trademarks), does sound a bit ludicrous.
It would seem that anyone bearing the last name ‘Kardashian’ is invincible. That did not stop Australian icon Kylie Minogue from successfully putting a stop to Jenner’s trademark application in February this year.
It all came down to a game of who deserves it more, with Minogue including in her letter to the US Patent Office that Jenner was “a secondary reality television personality”, and that Minogue was comparatively an “internationally-renowned performing artist, humanitarian and breast cancer activist known to the world simply as Kylie”.
At the end of the day, team Kylie Australia trumped that of team Kylie America, and if you wish to infringe the trademark of ‘Kylie’, you will have Minogue to answer to.
If you have queries about trademarks or intellectual property matters in Australia, or any other legal matter, then please do not hesitate to contact one of our experienced and expert lawyers on (07) 4795 1114.