A year ago this week, our girl Kylie Minogue won a legal battle with Kylie Jenner over the right to trademark the name ‘Kylie‘ in the US, after the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star sought to use it for advertising and endorsement purposes.
Minogue, who has been identified by her first name throughout her career, successfully argued that this would create “confusion” and damage her brand, and a filing on her behalf said Jenner was a “secondary reality television personality” who appeared as “a supporting character” on her show.
For the first time since she prevailed in the lawsuit, Kylie Minogue has spoken out about it, saying that her decision to fight Jenner over the rights to the name was “nothing personal”, and that she merely wanted to protect her legal rights and clear up confusion.
Speaking with Rolling Stone, the singer said:
“I’ve never met Kylie Jenner. I’ve never met any member of the family – actually, I’ve met Kendall just in passing at a fashion event – but I honestly don’t know them. It’s awkward because fans get so loyal and vocal, and we love that! But it was nothing personal at all, I’m at pains to say. Trademark is long, it’s boring, it’s expensive, and it’s really important. I’ve been doing that for years and years. It was just causing confusion with customers. As long as it’s clear, then we can all win.”
She was also at pains to insist that the “secondary reality television personality” quote that many attributed to her actually came from one of her lawyers:
“Can you imagine me saying that?! That was just unfortunate that that is how those lawyers speak. So I genuinely hope that it’s understood: That certainly did not come from me. Good news is, that’s all wrapped up, we didn’t have to go to court. That’s all done. And I’m sure I’ll meet them one day.”
The Kardashian-Jenners famously know how to hold a grudge, so it’s unclear whether they’ll be as laid-back about all of this, but I guess we’ll see.
In case you missed it, here’s Kylie Minogue’s uber-campy video for her newly-released single ‘Dancing‘:
