An Australian court has ruled that pop superstar Katy Perry infringed on the trademark of a Sydney-based fashion designer who sold her products locally under her birth name ‘Katie Perry’.
Katie Taylor, who filed the lawsuit in 2019, claimed the singer ignored the trademark and sold Katy Perry clothing to Australian customers during her 2014 and 2018 concert tours in the country through retailers and websites.
Federal Court Judge Brigitte Markovic has ruled that Katy Perry’s company Kitty Purry partially infringed the trademark of Katie Taylor’s business, which sells mostly clothing online, by promoting the singer’s products through social media posts, a court heard Thursday.
Compensation will be decided later
“This is a story of two women, two teenage dreams and one name,” Markovic said in her ruling. A judge has rejected a pop star’s bid to invalidate Katie Perry’s trademark. Taylor, born Katie Perry, called the verdict a “David and Goliath” win for small businesses.
“I wasn’t just fighting myself, I was fighting for small businesses in this country, many of them women-owned, who may find themselves up against overseas entities that have far more financial power than we do,” she blogged.
Representatives for Katy Perry could not immediately be reached
The dispute between the pop star and the Australian fashion designer over the homophone name began in 2008, when Taylor registered the trademark “Katie Perry” in Australia.
Katy Perry first tried to block the registration and later hired lawyers to try to force the designer to cease and desist from using the mark for good, but later dropped that move, Taylor said.
