Weeks after Kim Kardashian filed to trademark her new beauty brands SKKN and SKKN by KIM, her legal team received a cease and desist letter from a Black business owner who is already using the name. Beauty Concepts LLC, claim they’ve already locked down the moniker for salon, skincare and spa services.
Cydnie Lunsford, a 28-year-old entrepreneur and aesthetician and owner of the SKKN+ brand (@skknplus), established her brand in July 2018 in Washington, DC, and since then has expanded to New York City. For the past three years, Lunsford has been consistently building her SKKN+ brand name and refuses to have her brand and her name compromised.
“I have painstakingly built my successful small business with my own sweat equity, hard work, and research. It’s clear that I established my brand first. As a young black woman, my mission with SKKN+ is to provide quality skincare and curated full body experiences to enhance each client’s self-care regimen. The (+) represents a hands-on transformative aesthetic experience that elevates the body, mind, and spirit,” Lunsford stated in a legal letter.
The company says Kardashian’s use of the name would create confusion in the marketplace and they applied to trademark the SKKN+ name on March 28, just days before Kardashian filed her own trademark on March 30. Kardashian’s attorney spoke with TMZ and claims an agreement was already in the works before the news went public.
“We certainly appreciate and support small businesses, and our hat is off to Ms. Lunsford. But the question at hand is one of trademark law, and we’ve not done anything deserving of legal action by her. We are disappointed that she has chosen to run to the media knowing that we were scheduling a call for tomorrow, requested by her attorney. So while disagreeing with the letter, we’re hopeful that we can smooth things over once both sides speak,” Kardashian’s attorney, Michael G. Rhodes, told TMZ.
Beauty Concepts legal letter also claimed the Kardashian “does little to differentiate the brands” and that her trademark application for “SKKN” is a rip-off of their moniker. You can find more information about Lunsford’s brand at www.skknplus.com and @skknplus on Instagram.
