Kylie vs Kylie: The Kardashians (Try) to Take the USPTO.

In 2015, Kylie Kardashian filed a trademark application for the word "Kylie" which was immediately opposed by Kylie Minogue, who already trademarked "Kylie" in 2006. While Minogue's opposition filing was mostly legalese, the drama just between the lines would have been right in place on "Keeping up with the Kardashians."

As per Minogue's filing, Kylie Minogue is an "internationally renowned performing artist, humanitarian, and breast cancer activist" who has "worldwide record sales of over 80 million records" and "has been active both in the United States and around the world in a variety of high publicity humanitarian efforts."

To the contrary, Kylie Kardashian (17 at the time) was described as "a 2015 home-schooled graduate of Laurel Springs School in Ojai, California," and "a secondary reality television personality" who has "drawn criticism from e.g., the Disability Rights and African-American Communities."

That is as close to shots fired that you will get in a United States Trademark and Patent Office opposition filing.

So what can we learn from this? Most importantly, first names can be trademarked! This is an interesting situation in trademark law, because while first names can be trademarked, surnames (in most situations) cannot be trademarked. So while "Kylie" could be trademarked, "Kardashian" in general cannot. *

* "Kardashian" does have a trademark, but they had to overcome a rejection for the trademark being primarily a surname through another legal concept called "acquired distinctiveness." That is a legal rabbit hole for another post.

Source: https://lnkd.in/dCMYppF3, https://lnkd.in/d9kEkNmj