It seems likely that Katy Perry wants to branch out into fashion design.
Lawyers for Perry, the pop singer famous for her “I Kissed a Girl” song, are opposing a bid by a local Australian designer Katie Perry to trademark her birth name. Perry (the designer), has been designing and selling her fashion line of luxury loungewear for approximately two year now online and via local market, and she decided to file a trademark application in September 2008. The designer is now being targeted by Perry’s (the singer) lawyers and pressured to withdraw her application and stop selling under her own name.
It was revealed in The Australian that a few days ago the designer received a letter from Queensland-based legal firm Fisher Adams Kelly asking her to stop trading. “I got such a huge shock. It really felt like I was being intimidated and bullied into signing everything away. It asked me to give up the trademark, withdraw sale of my clothes, withdraw any advertising and any websites, and sign that I will not in the future use a similar trademark to Katy Perry. I pretty much burst into tears,” lamented Perry.
The designer, however says she will not give up all that she has worked for without a fight – “I’m not trying to become a singer. I’m not pretending to be her. This is my income. And it’s the livelihood of my contractors as well.”
I applaud the Australian designer for sticking up for herself. It saddens me to continually see small designers intimated by big-name brands. Hopefully Katie will triumph in this matter.
