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5 June 2019Trademarks

Kahlo family at odds over Frida TM rights

A dispute has arisen over ownership of trademark rights related to the late Mexican painter Frida Kahlo.

Frida Kahlo Corporation (FKC), a Panamanian-based company incorporated by Kahlo’s estate in 2008 to manage and licence trademarks for Kahlo’s name and image, filed a lawsuit on Monday, June 3, seeking a declaration that a rival company had infringed its IP.

FKC claimed that it is the owner of 20 US trademarks covering Kahlo’s name and designs bearing her image.

In the suit, filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida, FKC alleged that Mexican company VersaLicensing was falsely claiming to represent the trademark rights.

FKC claimed that VersaLicensing had been unlawfully granted authority to licence the trademarks to other companies by Familia Kahlo, a company established by Mara Cristina Teresa Romeo Pinedo, a former FKC director and daughter of the Mexican artist’s niece, Isolda Pinedo Kahlo.

The suit claimed that in 2011, Pinedo and her daughter became “disaffected” with FKC and “proceeded to undermine the validity of the FKC marks by attacking the legitimacy of FKC’s rights to the ‘Frida Kahlo’ brand online and through social media”.

Their actions form part of a “a campaign to misappropriate the rights that Isolda Pinedo Kahlo rightfully and legally ceded to FKC, in order to profit at FKC’s expense and detriment,” the company alleged.

Now, according to the suit, VersaLicensing claims to represent the Frida Kahlo brand and trademarks. The complaint cited posts on VersaLicensing’s Instagram page advertising t-shirts bearing Kahlo’s name and image.

In the suit, FKC accused VersaLicensing of contributory trademark infringement, false designation of origin, unfair competition and false advertising.

FKC is seeking a declaration from the court that is the rightful owner of the Frida Kahlo marks, as well as compensatory damages in excess of $75,000 and the repayment of lost profits.

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