A Black business owner has filed a cease and desist against Kim Kardashian after the celebrity filed a trademark request for “SKKN BY KIM.”
Kardashian revealed that she is currently rebranding her KKW Beauty brand following her split from her husband, Kanye West, several weeks back.
But it seems Kardashian has been preparing for the relaunch for months. In December, the reality television star reportedly purchased the domain name SKKN.com and acquired the @SKKN social media handles.
Beauty Concepts LLC‘s Cydnie Lunsford is an aesthetician who currently owns a beauty business SKKN+ brand. The company has been operating as far back as 2017, according to Complex, and her social media has been consistently updated over the years.
While some may think that Kardashian may have been unaware of Lunsford’s business — her attorney thinks it’s not very likely.
Erik M. Pelton said it was “hard to believe that Kardashian’s team either did not know about the prior use of SKKN+ or knew and adopted the SKKN brand name anyways to steamroll a small minority business.”
Speaking to Complex, Lunsford says:
“I have painstakingly built my successful small business with my own sweat equity, hard work, and research. It’s clear that I established my brand first. As a young Black woman, my mission with SKKN+ is to provide quality skincare and curated full body experiences to enhance each client’s self-care regimen. The (+) represents a hands-on transformative aesthetic experience that elevates the body, mind, and spirit.”
Kardashian’s legal representative insists the mother-of-four has done nothing wrong.
“We certainly appreciate and support small businesses, and our hat is off to Ms. Lunsford. But the question at hand is one of trademark law and we’ve not done anything deserving of legal action by her,” attorney Michael G. Rhodes told TMZ.
“We are disappointed that she has chosen to run to the media knowing that we were scheduling a call for tomorrow, requested by her attorney. So while disagreeing with the letter, we’re hopeful that we can smooth things over once both sides speak.”
