Kim Kardashian sued SKKN for trademark infringement, calls it a shakedown

Kim Kardashian is using her celebrity to bully a small business for the rights to a skincare line, according to a new lawsuit… but Kim’s legal team says it’s nothing more than a “shakedown effort.”

Kim is being sued for trademark infringement of her new brands, SKKN and SKKN BY Kim, by a Brooklyn company called Beauty Concepts, which claims to own the rights to “SKKN+” and says Kim uses the nickname on her beauty products to confuse customers.

According to the lawsuit obtained by Olasmediatv.com, Beauty Concepts says it’s a black and women’s company that survived the pandemic and moved into a brick and mortar store only to find out Kim K launched her new brand with a strikingly similar name.

in the documentsBeauty Concepts says it reached out to Kim’s team after filing papers trying to secure the rights to “SKKN”… informing her that it already had the trademark for “SKKN+” and asking Kim not to use a similar brand name. The company claims that Kim’s team ignored the request and pushed forward and released her line anyway.

Kim’s lawyer, Michael Rhodes, pushes back, telling Olasmediatv.com… “This lawsuit is not what it seems. SKKN BY KIM is a new brand following in the footsteps of Ms. Kardashian’s successful KKW product line. Building on independent research and development, her company filed a trademark application for SKKN BY KIM to protect the new branded products. This led to the current shakedown efforts.”

Rhodes says: “We applaud Ms Lunsford for being a small business owner and following her dreams. But that doesn’t give her the right to falsely claim we’ve done something wrong. Beauty Concepts claimed in her letter to own the rights to a logo consisting of SKKN+ and had just filed for trademark protection for that logo. The company was a sole proprietorship that offered facials from a single location in Brooklyn. The salon had no signage and was by appointment only. To our knowledge, Beauty Concepts has no products sold under the name SKKN+.

He continues: “Beauty Concepts has asked us to drop the name SKKN. Of course we said no. Beauty Concepts then challenged Ms. Kardashian’s trademark filings with the USPTO. Unsurprisingly, the USPTO dismissed Beauty Concepts’ own SKKN+ brand, saying “skkn” simply means “skin.” Undeterred, Beauty Concepts then tried to make its business appear more than it was — it rented a new storefront, changed its website, etc.”

Rhodes says Kim’s team tried to work with Beauty Concepts to sort something out, saying he “pointed out that running a small esthetician business in Brooklyn doesn’t entitle it to shut down a global skincare line.” .”

Kim and Beauty Concepts are still fighting over who owns the trademark rights…and Kim’s attorney says BC filed this lawsuit to try to negotiate a settlement and land a big payday.