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28 June 2021TrademarksMuireann Bolger

Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty label hit with TM infringement suit

Music artist Rihanna has become embroiled in yet another IP suit after lingerie company Adore Me accused the singer’s Savage X Fenty brand of trademark infringement.

The complaint was filed at the US District Court for the District of  California on Thursday, June 24.

In the suit, Delaware-based Adore Me holds that Savage x Fenty infringed by its unauthorised use of the mark, “Adore Us”, for marketing lingerie and related online retail services. This mark, it claimed, was too similar to Adore Me’s own titular mark which is used to advertise similar clothing items and would lead to confusion among consumers.

The complaint said: “Savage has advertised its own goods and services using ‘Adore Us’, which is confusingly similar to ‘Adore Me’, by prominently displaying the mark in sponsored ads on search engines such as Google for its own line of lingerie. Contrary to what such advertising suggests, Savage’s clothing products and retail services are not authorised by, sponsored by, or affiliated with ‘Adore Me’.”

The filing added that Adore Me had used its mark throughout the US continually since at least as early as 2011 and had invested significant resources promoting its brand under the ‘Adore Me’ mark.

On June 4, Adore Me sent a cease and desist letter to Savage X Fenty, but the brand did not respond either to Adore Me’s letter or to a subsequent follow-up communication sent on June 8, according to the filing.

‘Tricking’ potential customers

“Though it appeared that infringing advertisements were removed on or about June 8, 2021, Adore Me learned this week that they were again in use by the defendant,” it said.

Adore Me also accused Savage of buying keywords identical to the ‘Adore Me’ mark to use on “misleading advertisements in search engine results”, and held that in Google advertisements for its products, the “Adore Us” mark appears prominently.

Adore Me proceeded to allege that when a customer searches for its products, the search results instead return Savage’s prominent use of the ‘Adore Us” mark in connection with a link to Savage’s website.

This, according to Adore Me, tricked potential customers into visiting Savage rather than the authorised Adore Me website, leading to a loss in an opportunity for sales.

This is the latest of a series of IP legal wrangles for Rihanna over her fashion and retail brands.

A series of IP disputes

Rihanna founded her Fenty fashion label in 2018 as a joint venture with TechStyle Fashion Group, and it covers lingerie, beauty products, and fashion apparel.

In the year of its inception, the Fenty brand became tied up in a dispute between fashion retailer Forever 21 and sportswear brand Puma.

A year later, Rihanna filed a trademark lawsuit against her father and his business partner, alleging that they were fraudulently indicating that their entertainment company was associated with her brands.

In 2020, Canadian musician King Khan and his daughter Saba Lou accused Rihanna of infringing copyright on social media platform Instagram when promoting Fenty without their permission.

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More on this story

Trademarks
18 May 2015   DC Comics has hit back at an application by pop singer Rihanna to trademark her real name because it says it is too similar to the name of Batman’s sidekick.
Copyright
10 January 2018   Fashion retailer Forever 21 is refusing to lie down in a legal fight that sportswear company Puma began in April last year and is attempting to bring singer Rihanna into the brawl.