Kim Kardashian sued by Cindy Lunsford, owner of Brooklyn-based company over the name of her SKKN brand
Kim Kardashian's legal time dismissed a trademark infringement lawsuit over her latest venture, "Scan by Kim," calling it a "shakedown effort."
Cindy Lunsford, founder of Brooklyn-based company Beauty Concepts, sued the reality TV star, claiming she had trademarked "SKKN+" before 2018.
According to documents obtained by the LA Times, Lunsford alleges that the The Kardashians star's brand would "quickly dominate" her business if both companies used the same brand name.
Responding to the lawsuit, Kardashian's attorney Michael Rhodes told Page Six Style, "This lawsuit is not what it seems."
"We applaud Ms. Lunsford for owning a small business and following her dreams," he added. "But that doesn't give him the right to falsely claim that we did something wrong."
"In their letter, Beauty Concepts claimed the rights to a logo made of SKKN+, and filed for trademark protection for that logo," Rhodes said.
“The business was a one-man shop offering facials from a single Brooklyn location. The salon had no signage and was by appointment only. To our knowledge, Beauty Concepts did not sell any products under the SKKN+ name,” he said. .
However, Rhodes disclosed that the United States Patent and Trademark Office "rejected the beauty concepts" owned the SKKN+ sign, saying that 'skkn' means 'skin,'"
She adds that the Kardashian team "reached out to Beauty Concepts several times to try to find a sensible way to coexist," but the company "didn't really engage with us beyond asking for a lot of money."
Rhodes said the case is "less about the law of trademarks and more about trying to take advantage of the settlement by threatening to damage Ms Kardashian's name and reputation," adding, "It won't work." "