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Designer Katie Perry wins Australian trademark battle against Katy Perry
By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 2 May 2023
An Australian fashion designer born with the name Katie Perry has won a trademark battle against a certain Katy Perry in her home country.
The two Perrys first started sparring over who had the right to sell clothing products using the name Katy/Katie Perry within Australia back in 2009. The singing Perry sent the designing Perry a stern legal letter, resulting in the latter hitting out at the former online.
The singer insisted that the stern letter was not as threatening as the designer made out – and was not the start of any legal battle in the courts – but was just a routine correspondence sent as part of her own company’s bid to register some trademarks in Australia.
However, the dispute did ultimately end up in court, albeit years later and at the instigation of the designer Perry. Having found someone willing to fund some legal action, she sued pop star Perry in 2019 claiming that the musician’s sale of Katy Perry branded clothing products in Australia infringed her trademark.
By that time, Katie Perry had married so was legally known as Katie Taylor. That wasn’t relevant to the legal battle, though the fact that Perry/Taylor had used the name Katie Howell while growing up – Howell being her stepfather’s surname – was brought up. However, she was born Katie Perry and had started using that name again around the time she set up her clothing company in 2006.
And, of course, Katy Perry isn’t really Katy Perry, her real name being Katy Hudson. She released her first album in 2001 under that name, and didn’t rise to fame as Katy Perry until her 2008 album ‘One Of The Boys’. That was released two years after the designer Perry had started selling clothing under her birth name, although she didn’t trademark the Katie Perry brand in Australia until shortly after the release of the other Perry’s 2008 album.
But anyway, despite all those technicalities, Perry has won the trademark battle. By which I mean Katie Perry – or Katie Taylor if that makes it easier to follow. “In my view, Ms Taylor is entitled to an injunction against [Katy Perry’s company] to restrain it from continuing engaging in infringing conduct”, wrote Australian judge Brigitte Markovic in a ruling last week.
“I am persuaded that the respondents’ infringing conduct was such as to attract an award of additional damages in relation to the infringing conduct that has been established”, the judge added, although specifics as to what those damages might be are not yet clear.
Responding to the judgement on social media, Katie Perry wrote: “Earlier today the Federal Court Of Australia published its decision in which I won the biggest battle of my business career, the ‘David and Goliath case’ – my legal action against the singer Katy Perry and her companies, for infringing my Katie Perry trademark in Australia – which I’ve held since 29 Sep 2008”.
“I resisted an attack on me and the trademark”, she explained, adding “we established infringement and the cross claim was dismissed”.
Looking back at the long-running trademark battle, she went on: “You may remember that in 2009 there was an attempt to shut me down by the US singer. It failed and the opposition to my trademark was withdrawn. I [then] withstood a brutal cross examination in the Federal Court in 2021”.
“Over the past few years, including whilst battling it out in court, I have been bullied and trolled”, she continued. “My friends and family have been trolled. I have had to bear hearing disparaging comments be made about me as I sat in court with tears in my eyes. I have been told I am naive and an opportunist – but they are simply traits of entrepreneurs trying to get a start up business off the ground”.
“This is a win for small business”, she concluded. “We matter, Australian laws matter and most importantly in the face of a bully it is important to stand up for yourself. Not only have I fought myself, but I fought for small businesses in this country, many of them started by women, who can find themselves up against overseas entities who have much more financial power than we do. We did it – we have won”.
