Australian designer Katie Perry has won her High Court appeal against pop megastar Katy Perry in a years-long trademark case.
In a decision on Wednesday, High Court judges found that Katie Perry had not hurt the US singer’s reputation or caused confusion with her clothing brand, which started in 2007.
Katie Perry, who changed her surname to Taylor in 2015, successfully sued Perry two years ago for selling merchandise during a 2014 Australian tour, but the ruling was overturned in 2024 with the designer’s trademark cancelled.
The new decision found that Perry’s reputation was so well-established in Australia that anyone seeing Taylor’s clothing brand would not confuse the two names.
“This has been an incredibly long and difficult journey,” Taylor said in a statement shortly after the decision.
“But today confirms what I always believed – that trademarks should protect businesses of all sizes.”
A representative for the US pop star said in a statement that she “never sought to close down Ms. Taylor’s business or stop her selling clothes under the KATIE PERRY label.”
While the High Court allowed Taylor’s trademark to remain on the register, Katy Perry’s representative said some issues raised by the singer have bent sent back to full federal court.
The case centres around the sale of clothes under the Katie Perry brand in Australia and the sale of Katy Perry-branded merchandise during the singer’s tour.
In 2007, Taylor – who went under her maiden name at the time – registered her business name, Katie Perry, and applied for a trademark.
From 2008, she sold clothes at local markets, had a website and several social media accounts with the Katie Perry brand.
But in 2009, lawyers for the Roar singer asked Taylor to stop using her brand and signalled plans to oppose a trademark application but later dropped legal action.
“I had never heard of the singer when I started my label,” Taylor said, with court documents detailing how she first heard of Katy Perry in mid-2008 when the song I Kissed A Girl came on the radio.
“I was simply building a fashion business under the name I was born with.”
In 2023, Taylor sued the singer for trademark infringement and won, with the singer’s sale of jackets, hoodies, T-shirts and sweatpants during a 2014 tour in breach of trademark laws.
But in 2024, it was overturned on appeal, with judges saying Perry had been using her name as a trademark five years before Taylor started her business.
At the time, Taylor described the case as a “David and Goliath” battle, saying she was devastated by the decision.
On Wednesday, the High Court – in a majority decision – found that given the “heightened strength of the reputation of Katy Perry”, that “no ordinary person in Australia… after a moment’s reflection” would think Katie Perry products were linked to the US singer.
“This case has never just been about a name,” Taylor said.
“It has been about protecting small business in Australia, for standing up for what is right and showing that we all matter.”
In recent years, Katy Perry has made headlines for a range of reasons, from being mocked for kissing the earth after disembarking a Blue Origin spaceflight, to her high-profile divorce from actor Orlando Bloom, and her new relationship with former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
*BBC*
