Hasta La Ideas

Outside of maybe the music business, the fashion industry is perhaps one of the most litigious in regard to copyright law. Following Trovata‘s court battle against Forever 21 last month (which ended in a mistrial, but with Trovata sounding ready to get back in there to try another day), we learned of a couple more interesting fashion-based battles. First up, the Kay Celine design firm is going after discount retailer Stein Mart for “knowingly reproducing and selling clothes that feature a Kay Celine design since at least March.” The company discovered the copying after a buyer from Stein Mart approached them to purchase a collection, they said no, and then items that looked remarkably similar started appearing on their racks just a few short months later. As with all fashion/copyright cases, it will be interesting to see how it all plays out. Second on the docket comes a more bizarre story by way of Australia, where a young designer named Katie Perry has been contacted by lawyers from the camp of musician Katy Perry after the designer tried to trademark her name to cover her clothing line. Despite having been born with the name Katheryn Hudson, the pop singer’s lawyers seem very uncomfortable with her brand being put into jeopardy with this Katie Perry (nee Katie Perry) designer’s appearance and have sought to block her receiving the trademark. The designer has since formed something of a grassroots movement against the singer, vowing to fight for the rights to the name:

Perry, a former menswear fashion manager for retailer David Jones, opened her first retail outlet in the Sydney suburb of Mosman last week, and recently picked up her first stockist, in the NSW south coast town of Kiama.

She said while she was born Katie Jane Perry and has never changed her name, she sometimes goes by the name Katie Howell — although her fashion label does not trade under that name. “I love my business. I’m not going to give it away without a fight either,” she said. “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.”