Kim Kardashian reacts to trademark infringement lawsuit: ‘Shakedown effort’

Kim Kardashian’s legal time has slammed the trademark infringement lawsuit over her latest venture "Skkn by Kim" by calling it a “shakedown effort.”

Cyndie Lunsford, founder of a Brooklyn-based company Beauty Concepts, sued the reality TV star, claiming that she had previously trademarked “SKKN+” since 2018.

As per documents obtained by LA Times, Lunsford alleges that if both companies use the same brand name then The Kardashians star’s brand would “quickly overshadow” her business.

Reacting to the lawsuit, Kardashian’s attorney Michael Rhodes told Page Six Style, “This lawsuit is not what it seems.”

“We applaud Ms. Lunsford for being a small business owner and following her dreams,” he added. “But that doesn’t give her the right to wrongfully claim that we’ve done something wrong.”

“In its letter, Beauty Concepts claimed to own rights to a logo made up of SKKN+, and had just filed for trademark protection for that logo,” Rhodes said.

“The business was a one-person shop offering facials from a single Brooklyn location. The salon had no signage and was by appointment only. To our knowledge, Beauty Concepts sold no products under the SKKN+ name,” he added.

However, Rhodes revealed that the United States Patent and Trademark Office “rejected Beauty Concepts' owned SKKN+ mark saying that ‘skkn’ just means ‘skin,'”

He went on to say that Kardashian’s team reached out to Beauty Concepts “several times to try to find a sensible path to coexistence” but the company “didn’t really engage with us beyond demanding a lot of money.”

Rhodes said that the case is “less about the law of trademarks and more about trying to leverage a settlement by threatening to harm Ms. Kardashian’s name and reputation,” adding, “That’s not going to work.”