1 week Ago By Elizabeth Byrne
Australian designer Katie Perry has secured a hearing in the High Court in her long-running battle with the singer Katy Perry over who owns the trademark name. The court on Friday agreed to hear the case in a special leave application hearing in Sydney. One of the ironies is that neither woman went by the name earlier in their lives.
Sydney fashion designer Katie Jane Taylor, who owns the fashion label Katie Perry, has convinced the High Court to hear her case. Singer Katy Perry was born Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson, and although the woman behind the Katie Perry fashion brand was named that at birth, for most of her life she went by Katie Howell and later Katie Taylor. The 'Katie Perry' trademark was first registered in 2008.
The registration was five years after Katy Perry adopted the stage name, and her career and international reputation began to take off. Around the time Ms Taylor was registering her company, the singer's management had begun to organise a worldwide tour, which would take in Australia. But when the management became aware of the 'Katie Perry' brand they were concerned there was an attempt to take advantage of the singer's reputation.
A string of legal action was first launched in June 2009 over a trademark held by Katie Jane Taylor, who uses her birth name to design and sell clothes under the brand Katie Perry. Eventually the singer's managers offered an arrangement to co-exist and effectively share the respective trademarks, but the designer refused and there was no agreement. Singer Katy Perry then secured her own trademarks for music goods and some other merchandise ahead of her 2009 tour.
All went quiet, and the matter seemed to be over, until 2019, when the designer took the case to the Federal Court. In the first instance, the designer won most of the case when the single judge found the singer had infringed the designer's trademark. But singer , in an appeal that found the goods covered by the trademarks were not the same.
That is that Katy Perry the singer, didn't have a reputation in clothes, like the designer did. But there was a catch. The court also found that the singer had a known reputation in Australia before the 'Katie Perry' trademark was registered, saying "we consider that because of the reputation in the Katy Perry Mark, the use by Ms Taylor of her mark on clothes would be likely to deceive or cause confusion".
The court said the trademark 'Katie Perry' should not have been registered in the first place and should be cancelled. That order was stayed pending what the High Court might decide in the matter when it is heard in the second half of 2025..
