Kim Kardashian Is Fighting Back Against Claims That Her Skincare Line ‘SKKN BY KIM’ Is A Trademark Infringement Of The Similarly Named Brand ‘SKKN+,’ Used By Small Business Owner In NYC

Kim Kardashian and her attorney are fighting back over claims that her skincare line ‘SKKN BY KIM’ is a trademark infringement of the similarly named brand SKKN+, used by small business owner Cydnie Lunsford.

Kim Kardashian, 41, was first served a cease-and-desist letter last July by Lunsford’s lawyers, claiming that her Brooklyn-based company Beauty Concepts LLC has provided salon and skin care services under the name SKKN+ since July 2017. In the letter, obtained by sources, Beauty Concepts says it also operates a website and social media handles using the same letters. They also say the company applied to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office back in March to register the SKKN+ logo.

According to reports, Beauty Concepts states that it is a “Black and woman-owned business“ that survived the pandemic and opened a store,

“only to learn [Kim Kardashian] was launching her new brand with a strikingly similar name.” 

Cydnie Lunsford- SKKN owner

In the legal docs, Beauty Concepts claim that after allegedly reaching out to Kardashian, they were ignored by the reality star’s legal team who pushed ahead with the SKKN BY KIM launch. The company stressed that it had put a lot of time and effort into building its brand over the past three years, and was now concerned that Kim Kardashian’s brand would cause confusion in the marketplace.

Kim Kardashian

However, a statement from Kardashian’s lead attorney Michael Rhodes calls the suit a “shakedown effort” from Lunsford’s legal team to “damage [Kim’s] name and reputation” and leverage a large settlement.

In response, Kim’s attorney, Michael G. Rhodes–who defended the family in the recent Blac Chyna case – told sources:

“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.”

He continued,

“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.”

Kim Kardashian

Rhodes later added:

“Several times we reached out to Beauty Concepts, trying to find a sensible path to coexistence. We pointed out that running a small esthetician business in Brooklyn does not give it the right to shut down a global skin care line.”

In the legal letter against the reality star turned entrepreneur, Beauty Concepts says Kim’s trademark application for “SKKN” is a ripoff of their innovative moniker, and simply adding “By Kim” does little to differentiate the brands. However, in addition to filing for the trademark, SKKN.com and @SKKN social media handles were all allegedly locked down by Kim Kardashian’s team in December 2020, somewhat indicating that the business venture had been in the works for a while.

This isn’t the first controversy that Kim Kardashian has faced over her skincare line. Earlier this month, fans accused her of ‘copying’ Lori Harvey’s skincare line which is called SKN.

Kim Kardashian, Lori Harvey

What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below!

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