The International Singer/Artist Beyoncé recently filed for a Trademark Infringement Case against a Texas-based company called 'Feyoncé', operated by Andre Maurice and Leana Lopez (No! she's not related to Jennifer Lopez). Beyoncé sent a cease & desist notice to the duo in February, 2016 asking them to cease using the name 'Feyoncé' as their brand name, as it is likely to create confusion among the public making them believe that the products were connected to the line of fashion run by her.
Beyoncé owns trademarks for her name and variations of it, including 'Beyoncé' and 'Beyoncé Rise' and even owns a website by the name of 'shop.beyonce.com' which consists of products such as apparel, headgears, perfumes and the likes. The 'I am......Sasha Fierce' album singer did not receive any reply from the duo Andre Maurice and Leana Lopez, following which she filed for a Trademark Infringement Suit at the US District Court, New York asking the court to serve an injunction on the company Feyoncé from selling, mugs, hoodies, t-shirts and the likes claiming that the company is infringing her rights and attempting unfair competition and trademark dilution. The singer also claimed that products sold under the name Feyoncé contained lines from her songs which would further trigger confusion among the consumers.
In March 2016, the USPTO refused from registering the mark Feyoncé, however, their products were still available in the market. On October 1, 2018, the District Court held that, though the text, font and the pronounciation of the terms Feyoncé and Beyoncé are similar, the term Feyoncé has a different connotation. The Court concluded by saying that, even though there was clearly pun intended by the defendants, however, by replacing the letter 'B' with 'F' the defendants term Feyoncé is pronounced similar to the word 'fiance' resulting in establishing the difference between the brands and thus, not creating any confusion among the public.
Thus, there is no trademark infringement as per the courts findings. Do you agree?
Compiled by: Adv. Sachi Kapoor | Concept & Edited by: Dr. Mohan Dewan
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