Kylie withdraws from Kylie trademark fight, leaving Kylie to profit from… existing?

It was a battle of the Kylies: in one corner legendary actress and singer Kylie Minogue; in the other, a girl that occasionally appears on a reality TV show. But it was the latter, Kylie Jenner, who decided last year to register her first name in various classes of trademark as just part of what has become the most improbable …

[Andy Non]

Kardashians?

I thought they were a warring race whose home planet was near Deep Space 9? Have they invaded Earth now too?

[Steve Knox]

Re: Kardashians?

No, those are the Cardassians.

You can tell the difference because the one group look and act somewhat like human beings, whereas the other is a group of evil megalomaniacs living in the USA.

[Voland's right hand]

Re: Kardashians?

You can tell the difference

There is one more differentiator. While the former have a mostly human body plan, the latter carry a huge protrusion the size of a small space battlecruiser in the area of their lower back. Science so far has been unable to figure out how do they manage to maintain balance while carrying said protrusion. The prevailing opinion is that there is a hidden set of anti-gravity support suspenders involved...

[Your alien overlord - fear me]

Surely proper Kylie has prior art or whatever they call it and wannabe Kylie is just leeching off proper Kylie's years of hard work?

[tfewster]

TOK vs TNK

Given that TOK has been known by just her first name for years (http://www.kylie.com/) and probably has all the money she needs to squash TNK, I wish she'd do the world a favour.

[veti]

"Prior art" is neither here nor there - this is about a trademark, not a patent.

Trademarks aren't meant to be particularly original (or "Hello Kitty" would have been a nonstarter) - they're just meant to differentiate one company's products from its competitors.

[Prst. V.Jeltz]

Yeah but real-Kylie's product is herself , and its called Kylie. Only problem is she forget to trademark it. Then talentless-nobody-Kylie comes along , who probably wouldnt even be called Kylie if real-Kylie hadnt popularised the name , and trademarks it !

Just seems wrong . Although I'm not sure what the ramifications are.

[Eddy Ito]

My guess is that it's only a matter of time before there is a dispute about the ownership of the kylie.com domain.

[NotBob]

Reality TV

Where the men are men and so were the women...

[JamesPond]

Re: Reality TV

Who's reality? At a guess, 0.01% of the worlds population's reality? How is that Reality TV? Apart from the real Kylie who has at least sold records and added, to a greater or lesser degree depending upon your viewpoint, to the world's artistic content, what have any of these other 'reality tv stars' ever produced other than garbage? And all from a lawyer who defended OJ and got a [allegedly / probably] guilty murderer off.

[Malcolm Weir]

Re: Reality TV

I find it grotesque when people blame lawyers for doing their job... and no, he did not get someone off, he knocked holes in the state's effort to get someone. Make no mistake: the state screwed that prosecution (in particular, Judge Ito did).

The state has an enormous amount of power to mess up your life through a prosecution. We all depend on having extremely skillful people willing to try to oppose that power. Sometimes they succeed when abstract notions of justice suggest they should not, , but would you yourself opt for a second-class lawyer to defend you, on the grounds that having good attorneys sometimes allow criminals to walk free?

Thought not.

[Geoffrey W]

Re: Reality TV

Trouble is, I probably would have to settle for a second class lawyer, if any at all, to defend me because I cannot afford the huge fees the good ones charge.

[m0rt]

Re: Reality TV

"I find it grotesque when people blame lawyers for doing their job"

That is ok. I find the job that lawyers do, usually, is also grotesque.

[Prst. V.Jeltz]

Lawyers

"The state has an enormous amount of power to mess up your life through a prosecution. We all depend on having extremely skillful people willing to try to oppose that power."

For me, i'm not as concerned about the state trying to mess up my life as I am about the army of scumbag criminals who do nothing useful , and just take from society all their lives, ruining the lives of normal hard working people in the process.

There are relatively few lawyers doing honorable things that matter for our freedom , like the case about whether the MPs could ignore the public will and knock back the exit (turns out they can - so freedom shat on there) compared to the thousands of blood sucking ambulance chasing parasites busy defending thugs , burglars, joy riders, drug addicts and sex offenders etc etc etc

[Dave 15]

Re: Lawyers

The problem with lawyers is the impacts they have. Even if they dont win they cost people a heap load of money (and yes, tax payers end up paying a stack for then... guess who paid to be told the MPs could ignore the will of the people... )

Then there are little things like...

Took my son to a model railway, he was too short to see, but when put on the plinth that had been built so that children could see (was a plinth that I had used when I was a child) I was told it was no longer allowed for health and safety reasons (re people sue when they hurt their ankle).

Stopped in one shop an joked about getting a cuppa when there was one being given to the assistant, couldn't in case I spilt it and sued them.

The list of stupidities goes on and on, all created by lawyers.

Come the glorious day they will be up against the wall with the politicians, scumbags the lot of them

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Reality TV

We wouldn't depend so much "on having extremely skillful people willing to try to oppose that power" if the legal system weren't so crap. Why is the legal system so crap? Because it was created by lawyers for their own benefit. And that's why people don't like lawyers. It's not because they don't like the concept of law.

[craigb]

Re: Reality TV

@jamespond

I doubt Shirley Manson would look too kindly on your association of (un)reality "stars" with as illustrious a band as Garbage

[Sam Therapy]

Oh, fucking Ada. Just when you thought people couldn't get any more stupid/vain/vapid/useless.

[Mark 85]

I guess we haven't fully hit that mark yet. MSM is carrying reports (on the front page equivalent) that Mama June is coming back to TV. Thank <$DEITY> I've got the cable TV turned off.

Disclaimer... I really have no idea who these "people" (if they can be called that) are other than what pops up on the news sources I read. What I see of the headlines makes me want to crawl into a very deep hole and pull the hole in after me.

[chivo243]

Wasn't there..

.. a browser plugin that would eliminate all traces of this clan from your web experience?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Wasn't there..

The world would be a better place if this clan were removed from History.

Can someone please tell us exactly what they have that is so fantastic (apart from sticky out bits and/or married to a fading Rap Artiste)?

Building a wall around them might do the world a favour IMHO.

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh the irony, missed by the plastic one (although, she is from the US).

I would assume Kylie the younger was so named due to the rise in popularity of said name, the reason for that rise being the status of Kylie the older in popular culture. Therefore the Kylie who wishes to protect her "brand" wouldn't exist in that identity without the other.

What is her brand anyway, surely Dow Chemical already has branded the parts that make her "stick out" so to speak?

[quxinot]

Re: Oh the irony, missed by the plastic one (although, she is from the US).

>What is her brand anyway, surely Dow Chemical already has branded the parts that make her "stick out" so to speak?

Best laugh I've had in days. Thanks for that!

[veti]

Re: Oh the irony, missed by the plastic one (although, she is from the US).

Sadly, "Real Kylie" has never been that big in the USofA. It's entirely possible that the Kardashiklan had never heard of her when Kylie Jr was born.

[Arctic fox]

Sometimes I am left with a surreal feeling that I am not quite in the same universe as other people.

"suffer irreparable injury to their reputation and goodwill"

The Kardashians, pardon? How did they manage to write/say that whilst maintaining a straight face?

[Pascal Monett]

Botox.

It's thanks to the Botox.

[Anonymous Coward]

Mind blown...

All my life I've lazily subscribed to the "Yanks don't do irony" notion - and all along they've been out-deadpanning me, but with the telltale lift of an eyebrow or half-wink tragically lost to Botox.

[Anonymous Coward]

American Crime Story showed that OJ is to thank for the rise of this lot:

"But it was the latter, Kylie Jenner, who decided last year to register her first name in various classes of trademark as just part of what has become the most improbable business empire of recent years: a coven of Kardashians offering overpriced tat to young girls who don't know any better."

Em, How can I get off this f'in planet?

[Haku]

Re: Em, How can I get off this f'in planet?

Throw lots of money at Elon Musk to hitch a ride on his next launch?

Bribe someone in Russia's space program?

Failing those, eliminate & take over the identity of one of the finalists in that 'get your ass to Mars' expedition?

[Tom 7]

Re: Em, How can I get off this f'in planet?

It looks a lot like presetenditallnow Trump has a cheaper answer.

[frank ly]

"(we swear we're not making this up)"

It's difficult for me but I believe you.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a step back in time for trademark law in my mind. I'm sure there's tears on her pillow tonight. I think she has got to be certain that she wouldn't change a thing and it's no secret, hand on your heart, never too late.

On the other hand is my attempt at quality non s.a.w. quotes for the other side, here goes,

arse

[Fortycoats]

You should be so lucky.

That was especially for you.

[GrapeBunch]

Warm the cockles

http://goldengirlfinance.com/inspiration/?post_id=2514

The first one stuck in my mind because we had family friends named Brick. Later it transpired that we also have relatives (sur-) named Brick. Needless to say, I will never shop at the Brick Warehouse. But the end of the story at least was happy.

[PhilipN]

Can't believe I wasted 2 minutes of my life on this news

So to make up for it here is a starter list of Wastes of Space (Nos. 1 and 2 being of course Kylie I and Kylie II) :

Russell Brand

Pete Doherty

Eddie Izzard (unfortunately having gone from Diamond Geezer to WoS)

Everyone whose surname begins with Kar ,,,, except Dad

.

.

There are others who are prime targets for a STFU but it is Chinese New Year here so I shall declare boundless goodwill for those mentioned above

[heyrick]

In the line of work I used to be in

"Kylie" meant something quite different that seems somehow appropriate.

https://www.kyliekanga.co.uk/ (and note it's a registered trademark!)

[allthecoolshortnamesweretaken]

"And that concludes this year's mindboggling delve into the lives of that weird group of LA women"

You wish. This year has still 11 months left in it to go through.

[Anonymous Coward]

memo to anyone planning a Nuke strike

can you take out those Kardashians first? I think the world would be a better place without them

OR just send the whole lot of them to Mars. I'm sure that they would love the publicity. Shame that it is a one way ticket. Yay!

They really don't add anything to the advancement of humanity.

[wayward4now]

Re: memo to anyone planning a Nuke strike

Oh HELL NO!! You can't send them to Mars! I am the sole Elite Forward Guard custodian/emperor of Mars and I just got in my first good harvest from my ham bushes and blanket trees. I just laid up some rows of NSM seeds, which I expect to sprout within the month, and then I won't be lonely. I highly suggest you send your surplus masses to Venus instead. The emperor of Venus is a right dick head and deserves the Kardashians and Paris. Leave me ALONE!

[GBE]

secondary reality television peronality.

> Kylie was little more than a "secondary reality television personality"

Hell, these days that apparently qualifies you to be president of the US.

[Oengus]

OMG

I'm so... so... well just so... OMG.

[dan1980]

In what universe should trademarking a perfectly ordinary first name be even possible?

[Mark Solaris]

Time is money

Can I have those 30 seconds back please...

[Andy 97]

Everyone knows that all children called Kylie (born after 1986) are merely cheap imitations.

[Anonymous Coward]

This:

"their own ever-expanding family of attention-obsessed relatives".

Their own, probably inbred "fambly" of vacuous, talentless, lazy, good for fuck all attention seeking contributors of precisely nothing, relatives.

TFTFY

The very fact that people are "impressed" by them, doesn't bode well for the future of humanity.

[Prst. V.Jeltz]

Re: This:

The very fact that people are "impressed"

Yup . Idiocracy is here.

The only thing to save us is the "B" Ark - although the job cataopries will have to be updated because the original spec jobs sound positively useful compared to the masses of vapid preening nobodys we have now.

[Andy The Hat]

Sorry

I must apologise but whilst I'm fully aware of a certain antipodean princess, is it just me who has no idea who the rest of this article is talking about?

[A K Stiles]

Re: Sorry

Not just you - I was only aware of the pop-pipestrelle as bearing that name as an individual - I am aware that there are a substantial number of namesakes born subsequent to 1984 who owe their nomination to said lady. Who this other entity is I have no idea, nor do I have any desire to expand my knowledge in that direction from the inklings I perceive.

[David Nash]

Re: Sorry

Me too, and I expect that goes for many here. And that's just the point.

(I did wonder why El Reg bothered reporting this, then realised that the core readership is probably, to a large extent, of the generation and gender that could be said to know and love Miss Minogue)

[Paul Westerman]

Who?

I thought Kylie was the oppossum in Fantastic Mr Fox.

[Peter Clarke 1]

Best Plan

Maybe we should visit Kylie the Youngers website and then leave negative reviews for not mentioning the Real Kylie. Oh, hold on a mo ........

[Anonymous Coward]

30 year career? Ha ha... seriously, she should be so lucky.

While I have no problems with a (not-even-all-that) (*) famous-for-the-sake-of-being-famous person like Kylie Jenner being described as a "secondary reality television personality", the irony is that while nowadays Kylie Minogue is viewed almost as an (adopted) national treasure, when she started out as an actress on a lightweight soap turned singer of disposable, manufactured pop, she wasn't respected at all.

Recently I saw a sketch from Rowan Atkinson's early-90s stage show (which I'd had on video) on YouTube again. It included the line "...awards for plays that closed the week before they opened because the audiences were clamouring instead for tickets to Andrew Lloyd Webber's latest re-arrangement of Evita to suit the vocal range of Kylie Minogue?"

This was obviously a contemptious (in-character) swipe at popular culture with Minogue its nadir. If you'd told someone back then that the singer of "I Should Be So Lucky" would still be around- and one of the most successful acts from that era- in almost 30 years time (beyond minor "remember 1988" trading on nostalgia of an 18-month wonder), they'd have looked at you like you were utterly mad. She was almost the definition of the manufactured, disposable, aimed-at-10-year-olds late 80s pop star.

It's not like Kylie was ever *that* great a singer (though she was probably still a little better than given credit for in those early days.) But she's definitely the one who's made the most of what she does have and pursued it with an obvious determination and professionalism. That's sort of worthy of respect, at least on some level.

(*) Whatever one thinks of her, it's notable that if you do a Google Image search for "Kylie", it's Jenner that completely dominates the first page of results- you can be sure that a few years back that'd have been almost exclusively Kylie Minogue appearing there.

[AndyS]

Re: 30 year career? Ha ha... seriously, she should be so lucky.

So... You fancy her, is that what you're saying?

I guess she defined a period, in the same sense as the Spice Girls and Take That after her. The difference is that, being a solo act, she still exists, and is still in charge of, and actively managing, her own image.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: 30 year career? Ha ha... seriously, she should be so lucky.

Not offended by your assumption that I fancy Kylie, but I don't see anything I wrote that would lead one to think that either(!)

"I guess she defined a period, in the same sense as the Spice Girls and Take That after her."

Interesting thing about Kylie Minogue is that for a while it probably *did* look like she might have been just that, until her career comeback around the turn of the millennium.

It's unusual that some people have called "Can't Get You Out of My Head" her career-defining song, not only because it occurred almost fourteen years into her career but because she already had what most people would a career-defining song for better or worse- i.e. "I Should Be so Lucky"(!)

Her early stuff- and her early image- is almost the archetype of that period, but she escaped that in a way that people can watch the "Can't Get You Out of My Head" video and not automatically think of her image and style circa "I Should Be So Lucky".

The Spice Girls, for example, will always be "Wannabe". You couldn't imagine them having done something circa 2010 that would be more associated with them- to some people- than that song. They'd still always represent the late 1990s.