Nude Brands Ltd., a cosmetics company founded by the wife of U2’s Bono, Ali Hewson, lost a London court bid to block fashion designer Stella McCartney from introducing a new perfume this weekend.
Stella McCartney Ltd., a unit of L’Oreal SA, plans to begin selling the fragrance named “STELLANUDE” in the U.K. on Aug. 22, according to the judgment. Hewson’s Nude Brands has a European Union trademark on “nude” in capital letters and asked the London court for an order delaying sales of the perfume pending a full trial on trademark issues.
— Read more at Bono’s Wife Loses Bid to Stop Stella McCartney Scent, or see part 1 here.
18 Comments
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As I expected. What a frivolous lawsuit! I won’t buy any Nude cosmetics.
Agreed! Makes ya wonder if it was personal between the two parties.
3rd that. Curiously, if she were hypothetically to win the trademark of NUDE in the EU, does that mean all strip joints and nudie bars with NUDE LIVE GIRLS etc signs would have to change them? LOL
Karin, I was thinking the same thing about it being something personal. I’ve come up with all sorts of scenarios in my head (because I have nothing better to do), my favorite being Stella McCartney having had an affair with Bono, and this being the only way his wife could get back at Stella.
It does change things though that the trademark was for the use of the word in all caps, which was not mentioned in the prior articles. Given that, I don’t see why SM didn’t just use the word Nude without all caps — and for that matter, I didn’t realize the official name was in all caps to begin with, but apparently it is STELLANUDE.
Well if STELLANUDE is all one word, maybe there’s no case at all? Would they sue over a depilatory cream called DENUDED?
LOL…exactly! But perhaps they would.
Caps or no caps (I had read of that stipulation before) it’s just nonsense. I blogged about it, having Laurice Rahme come down on me for Riverside, and another perfumer for Peace. I just regard them as “squatters” trying to take over common words. Now we see two wealthy folks going at it, very publicly. I hope McCartney wins, it will set a precedent.
Seriously, I think there ought to be a law banning trademarking a ‘common’ word on its own for branding. If it’s in the dictionary, anyone’s got a right to it – it’s down to you how well you can distinguish your brand and sell your product. As this is allowed though, then write in some consistancy clause for trademarking these words – if you sue one person, then you are obligate to sue every other person ‘violating’ the trademark, and the the person doing the suing can’t sell any of their product until there is complete resolution in all cases. That would stop this ridiculousness.
I hope she wins too.
I suppose they’re going after all the nylons manufacturers of the world as well… ? Yawn.
Nah–just the ones who print the name of the color in all caps on the package.
Clearly, I need to get a move on and trademark “dissed.” Then I can sue the pants off anyone who’s been dissed, is dissed, will be dissed, disses, has dissed or intends to diss. Yes, this is a plan.
LOL…please, please do! I might trademark perfumista. But probably somebody already did.
“Perfumalholic” might be available for trademark. I’m just sayin…
LOL! Perfect.
Just happened to catch this “vintage” MTV news clip on celebrity perfumes—very funny, by the way—that refers to some litigation between Jackie Collins and Prince over their scents, Wild and Get Wild, respectively.
http://www.dangerousminds.net/index.php/site/comments/celebrity_perfumes_who_wants_to_smell_like_carlos_santana_or_gene_simmons/
It reminded me of this Stella business, although Jackie and Prince would make for better courtroom drama.
Sorry for the late reply…somehow I missed your comment. But thanks for the link — that’s hysterical! Somebody needs to make an updated version.