Kardashians victorious in infringement dispute

The Kardashian sisters have recently won a trademark infringement dispute against a licensee’s investor for breaking terms of a licensee agreement.

According to the Los Angeles Times,  Hillair Capital Management, a principal investor of Haven Beauty, a licensee of the Kardashian beauty brand, was accused of producing goods without the licensor’s approval and refusing to pay royalties for the use of the brand. By doing this, the defendant had not only breached their license agreement but they had also infringed on the trademarked brand.

In addition, the Kardashian brand informed Haven Beauty on 8th July that they were terminating their license agreement but the company continued to use the trademarks without prior consent.

However, according to Hollywood Reporter, Haven Beauty have claimed that the Kardashians are not happy with the aforementioned licensing agreement and have falsely accused Hillier of breaching it.

The Californian judge that passed the ruling in favour of the Kardashian brand, James Selna stated that "by refusing to make royalty payments due under the license agreement, Haven Beauty forfeited the right to continue using the Kardashian trademarks. This is true even if Defendants are correct that the Kardashians breached first, that Haven Beauty's breach was excused, or that the Kardashians later improperly terminated the license agreement."

Although the Kardashian's have won an injunction against Hillair, the investor is likely to appeal this decision so we will have to wait to hear the outcome of this case.

In this instance, Hillair was diluting the Kardashian’s brand image by continuing to use their name without their consent. Furthermore, the company was also deceiving the public by wrongly affiliating their goods with that of the fashion brand leading to customer confusion in the marketplace, hence the sisters decided to take action.

A trademark is a worthwhile investment as it will protect your brand and allow you to enforce your trademark rights over other companies that may infringe upon your mark. However, just having the trademark is not enough. Like the Kardashian’s you would also need to police your market for potential infringements and then be prepared to act on them when they do arise.

For advice and more information on searching, acquiring, registering and enforcing Trademarks please visit our website, http://www.lipex.com.

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