Katy Perry has won a years-long trademark battle with an Australian designer.
The Firework hitmaker has triumphed in a long-running legal battle with Australian fashion designer Katie Taylor, who sells clothes under her birth name and brand Katie Perry.
Taylor began proceedings after the singer started selling merchandise Down Under and she initially won the legal battle last year. However, the pop star filed an appeal, and on Friday, three appeals judges in Sydney overturned the 2023 ruling.
The judges stated that Perry had been using her name as a trademark for five years before Taylor started her business, and that the singer had already gained an “international reputation”.
The appeal judges also ordered that Taylor’s trademark be taken off the register.
“Whilst some die-hard fans of (Perry) may recognise the incorrect spelling, the ordinary consumer with an imperfect recollection… would be likely to be confused as to the source of the item and wonder whether it was associated with (the performer),” they wrote.
“Both women put blood, sweat and tears into developing their businesses,” the judges continued. “As the fame of one grew internationally, the other became aware of her namesake and filed a trademark application.”
In a new interview with the New York Post, Taylor admitted she was “devastated” by the decision.
“I have lost everything, including my trademark,” she said. “My label has been a dream of mine since I was 11 years old and now that dream that I have worked so hard for, since 2006, has been taken away. What do I do now?
“I will dust myself off and figure what the next steps are. Perhaps move to somewhere in the world where the name Katie Perry has no meaning.”
Perry, whose real name is Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson, has yet to comment on the verdict.
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Author: Saul
Photo: Ali Shaker/VOA – Public Domain