Kim, Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian are clear of a trademark infringement lawsuit over a beauty line that used to bear the name Khroma.
The sisters were sued in 2014 by a company called Kroma EU, which claimed Khroma infringed on its rights in a beauty line called Kroma. A Florida federal judge in August 2017 dismissed the suit, finding Kroma EU lacked standing to enforce the Kroma trademark because a company called By Lee Tillett owns the mark. Tillett had licensed the right to Kroma EU in Europe, but retained the rights in the U.S.
By way of background, Tillett and the Kardashians previously had a tiff over the sisters’ Khroma line with Boldface Licensing and Branding, but that dispute settled and the makeup was rebranded as Kardashian Beauty. Tillett didn’t share its settlement with Kroma EU, so it sued the Kardashians and Boldface directly. (The Kardashians and Boldface are separately warring in another dispute.)
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After losing a bid to move the fight to arbitration, the Kardashians won on a motion for summary judgment. Kroma appealed, and the 11th Circuit on Monday sided with the sisters, finding the company’s agreement with Tillett didn’t give it the right to sue for trademark infringement under the Lanham Act.
“The plain language of the agreement demonstrates the parties’ intent for Tillett to retain all ownership and enforcement rights,” states the opinion, which is posted in full below. “Kroma EU — while it may have other rights under the agreement — does not possess the ability to assert its rights in the mark in this proceeding.”
The Kardashians were represented by Michael Kump, Greg Korn and Jonathan Steinsapir of Kinsella Weitzman. In a statement to THR Kump says, “We are all pleased with the ruling by the Eleventh Circuit affirming that the Kardashians did nothing wrong and should never have been sued,”
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