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Kylie Minogue says blocking Kylie Jenner’s trademark application “just had to be done”

By Chris Cooke | Published on Thursday 9 June 2022

Kylie has commented on that time she had a run in with Kylie over the Kylie trademark. Kylie trying to stop Kylie from trademarking Kylie was something that “just had to be done” says Kylie. You know, because if Kylie was using the brand Kylie at the same time as Kylie using the brand Kylie that would be a bit confusing. As this paragraph has hopefully demonstrated.

So, yes, as you may recall, it was Kylie Minogue who objected to a trademark application in the US by Kylie Jenner back in 2016. Jenner wanted to trademark and therefore have the exclusive use of the brand ‘Kylie’ for ‘advertising services’ and ‘endorsement services’, but Minogue argued that she already owned the trademark for ‘Kylie’ in the entertainment space and had also used her name for the sale of perfume and clothing products.

In the filing with the US Patent And Trademark Office formally objecting to Jenner’s application, Minogue’s reps noted that their client was an international pop artiste while Jenner was a “secondary reality television personality” who had courted controversy with her “photographic exhibitionism and controversial posts” on social media. Which was the sort of statement that could have made this dispute fun to watch had it proceeded in public.

But ultimately a settlement was reached between the two Kylies. Although the terms of that settlement were not made public, Jenner subsequently started using the name Kylie Cosmetics for her beauty business, while Minogue launched a makeup range in 2019 using the standalone Kylie brand.

Speaking about her decision to block Jenner’s trademark application on Andy Cohen’s ‘Watch What Happens Live’ TV show this week, Minogue said, simply: “I’ve spent a lifetime protecting my brand and building my brand, so it was just something that had to be done”. Although, she was keen to add, “let me also say we came to an agreement”.

Cohen then asked if Minogue had thought about contacting Jenner’s mother Kris – who, of course, also executive produced the ‘Keeping Up With The Kardashians’ show that made members of the Kardashian/Jenner family famous enough to be launching beauty brands.

“Did you have to call Kris Jenner and be like ‘let me tell you something’?” Cohen asked. Minogue confirmed that she did not make any such call, but added that – despite the previous trademark skirmish – “I’d love to meet them”.