Selfie patent suit has ‘no merit’, claims Kim Kardashian

Kim Kardashian West has hit back at a patent infringement lawsuit filed by a company called Snaplight, claiming it has “no merit”.

Yesterday, WIPR reported that the reality TV star and retailer Urban Outfitters had been hit with a complaint centring on selfie cases for smartphones.

California-based Snaplight filed its claim at the US District Court for the Central District of California, where it claimed that selfie cases produced by LuMee infringed its US patent number 8,248,644.

However, the company did not sue LuMee.

Urban Outfitters sells the LuMee-branded phone cases, while Kardashian West, an official partner of LuMee, has endorsed and designed cases for the brand.

In a bid to “level the playing field”, Snaplight asked the court to enjoin Kardashian West from promoting and using the cases, while stopping Urban Outfitters from infringing.

Snaplight is also asking for compensation worth $100 million in lost profits/royalties.

In a post on its website, Snaplight’s founder Bardia Rahim said: “It’s illegal to try and monopolise the market, but more than that, it’s un-American to do it when you’re being deceptive and unethical the entire time.”

Speaking to WIPR, Kardashian West’s spokesperson said the claim was “just another attempted shakedown”.

They added that the reality TV star has “done absolutely nothing wrong”.

This is not Kardashian West’s first time in the IP spotlight—earlier this week she was sued for trademark infringement by Danish makeup artist Kirsten Kjaer Weis.

Trevor Coddington, partner at San Diego IP Law Group and representative of Snaplight, explained that LuMee sued Snaplight in the US District Court for the District Court of Delaware last year.

In the response to that lawsuit, Snaplight argued that LuMee’s patent, US number  9,464,796, was invalid in view of the ‘644 Snaplight patent.

A spokesperson for Snaplight added that LuMee has asserted a number of patents “against other brands, threatens suit, and bullies retailers into removing products under false pretence, including Snaplight”.

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