Kanye West is facing a legal dispute from Walmart over his attempt to trademark his fashion logo, which the corporation claims looks like their own.
via: New York Post
Walmart says Kanye West’s new logo — described in patent paperwork as “rays from a sun” — looks too similar to its 13-year-old sun logo and should be blocked as a result.
Walmart has filed a notice of opposition with the USPTO against Kanye West and the proposed logo for his Yeezy brand pic.twitter.com/CHX9ldfL6M
— Chris Creamer | SportsLogos.Net (@sportslogosnet) April 28, 2021
The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer last week filed an objection with the US Patent and Trademark Office over a design the entertainer filed for West’s Yeezy LLC in January 2020.
The design, which West’s company said may be used in conjunction with sneakers, underwear, T-shirts, furniture, modular homes and even hotel services, consists of eight lines made up of three dots each that emerge from a circle to form “rays,” according to legal papers.
The problem, Walmart says, is that it looks like the retailer’s 13 year-old mark, except that Walmart’s sun rays are made up of lines instead of dots.
Walmart claims that Yeezy’s mark will create “confusion” and a “false suggestion of a connection” between Walmart and Yeezy, according to the opposition filed on April 21.
Walmart even took issue with the singer’s plans to use the mark for entertainment purposes, claiming that Walmart “has sold products and done marketing campaigns in association with Jennifer Garner, the cast of Queer Eye, Drew Barrymore, Kendall and Kylie Jenner, Ellen DeGeneres, and Sofia Vergara to name a few.”
West has been busy filing trademarks of late, including a YZY logo for his Gap collection, which has white letters and is surrounded by a blue box that looks similar to The Gap’s logo. Yeezy signed a deal with Gap last year to design a line of clothing for the retailer.
The YZY logo, which was filed earlier this month, has not been approved.
West did not immediately respond for comment. Walmart merely pointed to an April 19 letter its sent to Yeezy’s lawyers suggesting efforts to settle the matter have gone nowhere.
“As we referenced in our correspondence in July and August of 2020, January and February of 2021 and our telephone conference in March of 2021, Walmart has repeatedly sought to understand Yeezy’s planned use of the Yeezy Application, with the goal of finding ways in which the Walmart Spark Design and the Yeezy Application can co-exist with one another,” the letter said. “However, to date, we have not received any conclusive information from Yeezy regarding the planned use or any cooperation from Yeezy in order to find common ground.”
Kanye is no stranger to lawsuits.
