Kylie Minogue breaks silence over legal row with Kylie Jenner
Australian-British singer Kylie Minogue has finally broken her silence over her legal row with socialite Kylie Jenner. For those of you who need a quick memory refresh, back in 2017, Minogue took Jenner to court after both celebrities realised they wanted to name their respective cosmetic lines ‘Kylie’.
The older Kylie—Minogue—ended up winning, but the singer has recently stated that it was “just business.” Appearing on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, the ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head’ singer opened up about the trademark row.
“Look, when I was named Kylie, I think I met one person older than me called Kylie. So it’s kind of unusual,” Minogue explained. She continued, “I’ve spent a lifetime protecting my brand and building my brand, so it was just something that had to be done.”
After TV host Cohen high-fived her, saying “Yes, it did!” Minogue added, “But let me also say we came to an agreement.” “Yes you did,” Cohen repeated before asking: “Did you like have to call Kris Jenner and be like ‘Let me tell you something?’”
Minogue replied, “No, but I’d love to meet them.”
Jenner first applied to trademark her name back in 2014—a year before she officially launched her beauty empire, which is now worth more than $1 billion. It was only in early 2016 that court documents revealed Minogue had formally opposed the application.
The singer described Jenner as a “secondary reality television personality who appeared on the television series Keeping Up With the Kardashians as a supporting character.” Meanwhile, Minogue was described as an “internationally-renowned performing artist, humanitarian and breast cancer activist known worldwide simply as ‘Kylie’.” Let’s all keep in mind that this was a couple of years ago. One can’t help but wonder what the verdict would have been if the same motion had been presented in 2022…
At the time, Minogue already owned various trademarks including the name ‘Kylie’ for the services of education and entertainment. She had also already sold products like perfume and clothes under the name ‘Kylie’ and has owned the domain name kylie.com since 21 August 1996—a year before Jenner was even born.
Minogue’s legal team said allowing Jenner to use the singular name ‘Kylie’ would cause possible confusion and “damage” to the pop singer’s branding.
Then, in 2017, it was announced that the reality star’s application had been rejected by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Two years after the ruling, Minogue launched her own range of makeup in 2019 under the name ‘Kylie’.
Jenner has since traded under the name Kylie Cosmetics, starting with lip kits only to become one of the biggest celebrity beauty brands of all time. As previously stated by Forbes, the entire Kardashian family—which at the time of reporting included Kim, Kanye, Kylie, Khloe and Kendall—have applied for over 700 trademarks between them (Kylie Jenner has 128). Heck knows what Kourtney is doing.
