A Sydney-based fashion designer has won a long-running trademark dispute against US pop star Katy Perry after Australia's High Court ruled in her favour, ending a legal battle that lasted nearly 17 years, The Guardian reported.
In a majority decision delivered on Wednesday, the High Court found that the designer's “Katie Perry” label did not breach trademark laws and was unlikely to cause confusion with the global pop star's brand.
The dispute dates back to 2007, when Australian designer Katie Taylor — who was born Katie Perry — applied to register the name as a business. According to the court, Taylor said she had not heard of the singer at the time. She later applied to trademark “Katie Perry” for clothing in September 2008, only months after the release of the singer's breakout single I Kissed a Girl.
When the singer, whose real name is Katheryn Hudson, performed in Australia for the first time in 2008, her team launched an online store selling “Katy Perry”-branded merchandise globally. The legal fight began in May 2009 when the singer opposed Taylor's trademark application and issued cease-and-desist letters to the Australian designer.
Also Read: Google Announces New Built-In AI Features To Chrome In India, Adds Support For Eight Indic Languages
Despite the opposition, emails cited in the High Court judgment show the singer's manager at the time, Steven Jensen, telling Perry in June 2009 that her team had “not tried to keep [Taylor] from trading under her name” and had “certainly not sued her for trademark infringement”.
In response, Perry wrote in an email referenced in the ruling that she wanted Jensen to “keep me outta it entirely”.
Taylor's trademark was formally entered into the Australian trademark register in July 2009 and she used the name to market her clothing brand. Meanwhile, the singer's “Katy Perry” trademark — which did not cover clothing — was registered in Australia in November 2011.
Nearly a decade later, in 2019, Taylor filed a lawsuit in Australia's Federal Court claiming the singer's branded clothing infringed on her trademark. In response, Perry sought to cancel Taylor's trademark, arguing the singer already had a strong reputation in Australia in 2008 and that the designer's label would likely cause confusion.
Taylor initially won the case in 2023, with a court finding Perry's label, Kitty Purry, had infringed the trademark during the singer's 2014 Prismatic tour. However, an appeals court overturned that decision in 2024 and ordered Taylor's trademark to be deregistered.
Also Read: AI Express Plane's Nose Wheels Get Detached After Landing At Phuket Airport
Taylor then appealed to the High Court.
Three of the five High Court justices — Jayne Jagot, Simon Steward and Jacqueline Gleeson — ruled in Taylor's favour, rejecting the argument that the singer had built a sufficiently strong reputation in Australia in 2008 that extended to clothing.
The court also ruled that Perry's label, Kitty Purry, and her merchandise distributor Bravado had been “assiduous infringers” of Taylor's trademark, noting that most merchandise sold in Australia consisted of clothing even though the singer had registered her trademark to exclude apparel.
The judges described this as “very much deliberate” conduct. Reacting to the ruling, a spokesperson for the singer said: “Katy Perry has never sought to close down Ms. Taylor's business or stop her selling clothes under the KATIE PERRY label.”
“The court determined that Ms. Taylor's trademark can remain on the register,” the spokesperson said, adding that the case would now return to the Full Federal Court to examine other issues, including Taylor's delay in filing the lawsuit.
In a statement on her website, Taylor welcomed the decision, saying the case demonstrated that “even small Australian businesses” can stand up for their rights.
“This case has never just been about a name,” she said. “It has been about protecting small business in Australia, for standing up for what is right and showing that we all matter.”
Essential Business Intelligence, Continuous LIVE TV, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.
