Pharrell Williams is facing another legal battle over a trademark he has tried to register in the US. This time it's Pink who is objecting to Williams’ attempt to secure exclusive use of the brand P.INC within music and various merchandise categories. It follows a recent legal filing made by Chad Hugo who hit out at Williams’ bid to trademark the name of their collaborative production outfit The Neptunes.
All these trademark registrations have been made by a company called PW IP Holdings, which is owned by Williams. It began the process of registering P.INC and P.INC Records in May last year. With the P.INC brand, Williams is seeking to register trademarks relating to clothing, cosmetics, retail, posters and even backpacks, in addition to sound recordings.
Presumably Pink - real name Alecia Moore - reckons that people will be prone to say ‘pink’ instead of ‘peee-inc’ when they see P.INC written down, and that will confuse people when used in the context of pop music. According to Billboard, the musician's own company, Lefty Paw Print, said in a legal filing last week that the trademarks Williams is trying to register will be “likely to cause confusion, mistake and/or deception” among consumers.
It's not just Pink objecting to the P.INC trademarks. Retailer Victoria’s Secret has also formally objected because it has a line of lingerie and apparel that uses the brand PINK.
Hugo recently accused his long-time collaborator of “fraud” after Williams’ company started registering The Neptunes trademark without his involvement.
In a legal filing, Hugo explained that he and Williams have always split everything to do with their production partnership 50/50, which means he owns 50% of The Neptunes brand. He also claimed that legal reps for Williams had admitted as much and offered to add Hugo as co-owner in the trademark registrations, but only if he agreed to “onerous business terms”.
Neither Pink nor Williams have as yet commented on this latest trademark dispute.