Kim Kardashian’s attorney, Michael Rhodes, has dismissed a trademark lawsuit involving his celebrity client’s new skin care brand, SKKN, as a “shakedown effort”.
Aesthetician Cydnie Lunsford’s Beauty Concepts, which uses the SKKN+ brand name, filed a complaint in a New York federal court on 28 June.
The lawsuit pits Beauty Concepts against Kardashian’s corporate entity Kimsaprincess Inc and Coty.
The complainant said they had reached out to the defendants with a cease and desist upon hearing the plans for a new skin care line under SKKN and/or SKKN BY KIM – but that this had been disregarded.
Rhodes, however, has hit back, telling celebrity news publication TMZ: “This lawsuit is not what it seems.
“SKKN BY KIM is a new brand that follows in the footsteps of Ms Kardashian's successful KKW line of products. Building on independent research and development, her company filed a trademark application for SKKN BY KIM to protect the new branded products. This prompted the current shakedown effort.
“We applaud Ms Lunsford for being a small business owner and following her dreams.
“But that doesn’t give her the right to wrongfully claim that we’ve done something wrong.”
Beauty Concepts had initiated two opposition proceedings before the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in December 2021.
In lieu of trademark registrations, Beauty Concepts is asserting common law rights to the SKKN+ mark based on use in commerce from August 2018.
It filed a trademark application to register SKKN+ for use on ‘skin care salon services and care services; Beauty spa services; Skin care services; [and] Beauty salon services’ in March 2021 – an application that’s still pending.
Commenting on the brand name snafu to TMZ, Rhodes added: “To our knowledge, Beauty Concepts sold no products under the SKKN+ name.”