Why Kylie Jenner, New Orleans family are in a legal tussle - San Francisco Chronicle

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — What’s in a name? Kylie Jenner can tell you.

The fabulously wealthy spawn of Kardashian family fame prompted millions of “likes” on Instagram in 2018 when she revealed the name of her newborn baby with rapper Travis Scott to the world.

The infant, Stormi, became famous in an instant, and a 7-year-old Lakeview girl was not happy about it.

“She asked, ‘Why would she take my name?,’” said Shenitriya Saleem of her daughter, Stormi. “She’s a little firecracker. She’s life. And why not? Everything I do, I do for the kids. It’s for them.”

What has erupted since then is a legal tussle that pits the New Orleans family and Curtis Bordenave, a trademark prospector from St. Roch, against Forbes’ top-earning celebrity in the world last year.

It’s a battle of trademark veterans. At 23, Jenner has applied to register 208 of them, seeking protection for the commercial use of “Kybrow,” “Kyshadow,” “Glitter Eyes” and “Rise and Shine,” to name a few.

Bordenave, 51, said he’s been registering trademarks since before she was born. He once tried in vain to register “alternative facts,” minutes after former Donald Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway blurted it out.

Partnering with Saleem and her family, Bordenave put in for the “Stormi Couture” trademark for apparel, a month after Jenner gave birth, when Stormi from Lakeview was 7. Months later, Jenner applied for a host of Stormi-related trademarks, including “Stormi World” for cosmetics, children’s clothes, toys, sporting goods, perfumes, costumes.

She announced the release of a “Stormi” line of cosmetics in February 2020. A month later, Bordenave and his company, Business Moves Consulting, opposed her trademarks, saying they would likely create brand confusion.

Jenner’s attorneys allege fraud, seeking to cancel out Bordenave’s trademarks. They describe Bordenave as a trademark pirate with a colorful history of piggybacking off famous monikers.

“I definitely want brands that are valuable, that people may want to use. You want property on the lakefront,” explained Bordenave, who said he splits his time between Mississippi and New Orleans. “I’ll go against anyone. They’re the bullies.”

Multiple trademarks can apply to the same words or phrases, allowing brands like Delta Airlines and Delta Faucet to co-exist in different markets. It can get thorny when the brand is tied to a celebrity, said Eric Goldman, co-director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law.

Jenner herself once battled it out in a trademark dispute with Australian actress Kylie Minogue over use of their names. It ended with an undisclosed settlement.

“So much of the nature of being a celebrity is about brand management. There’s this person called Kylie Jenner, but there’s this entire economic enterprise that’s under the Kylie Jenner brand,” Goldman said of the rush by celebrities to register trademarks. “There are millions of dollars that are going to be anchored to this baby’s name.”

Jenner’s knack for marketing cosmetics raises the stakes. Last year, she cashed out 51% of her namesake cosmetics company in a deal that valued the business at $1.2 billion. Her Stormi, now 3, “has achieved fame in her own right,” Jenner’s lawyers argue.

Even so, the relative fame of one Stormi over another wouldn’t matter if Bordenave and the family were making a legitimate go of his Stormi Couture brand, Goldman said.

“This famous baby isn’t inherently a problem,” he said. “The real issue is whether this person is just picking a brand and marketing it, or trying to create a barrier for someone more legitimate just so they can cash out.”

Bordenave claims he’s leveling the playing field against a Hollywood behemoth in an Internet world, where a Lakeview girl’s brand has a shot at going big even if it hasn’t yet made it off the block.

“I have every right to own intellectual property just like these celebrities. They just don’t like the fact the Internet has created an avenue for everyday people to expand their brands,” he argued.

“She’s got the fame and the money. She knew she was going to have a baby before me. If she had real intent on using something, she should have gotten it first,” he added. “We’ll gladly give her a license agreement to do cosmetics, but don’t just bogart your way and take our mark.”

His tactics have brought plenty of backlash over the years.

A federal judge in 2000 barred Bordenave and a company he created from using trademarks for Cash Money, Hot Boys and Hot Boy Wear. U.S. District Judge Mary Ann Vial Lemmon ordered Bordenave to surrender merchandise and Internet domain names and pay $92,000 to Cash Money Records, court records show.

Record producer DJ Khaled sued Bordenave in 2018 for registered trademarks using “Asahd,” the name of Khaled’s baby son, as well as the entertainer’s catch phrase, “We the Best.” The two sides reached a confidential settlement in 2019, court records show.

There’s no indication that Bordenave or the family were making “Stormi” T-shirts or other merchandise before Jenner’s announcement, and Bordenave is vague when asked to describe his efforts to market them since he registered the trademark.

A federal appeals court panel in New Orleans recently debated a similar question in the case of a Lacombe motel owner who had registered a trademark in 2007 for “metchup,” his blend of mayonnaise and ketchup.

Dennis Perry sued mammoth condiment maker Heinz after it launched “Mayochup” in 2018. Perry cried foul, but an attorney for Heinz argued last month that he’s done almost nothing over a decade to push his product, which he’d made from ketchup and mayonnaise purchased at Wal-Mart.

“Once a year, he filled six plastic bottles with condiments that he bought from Wal-Mart, stuck ‘metchup’ labels on them and put one or two on a table in his motel lobby and then called it a day,” the lawyer said. A ruling in that case is pending.

Bordenave’s attorney, Andrew Lilly, said it’s obvious that Kylie Jenner can make plenty more money off the Stormi name, but that the issue is a level playing field.

“Does the law really apply evenly or not?” he asked.

The case is currently before a trademark hearing board, though Lilly said they may soon file an infringement lawsuit against Jenner that would move the case to federal court.

The older Stormi is now 9. Saleem said the family hopes to launch lines of hair care and nail-polish products for girls using her namesake trademarks.

The child’s father and Bordenave have known each other since high school, she said. Bordenave said the agreement calls for the family to get licensing rights in Louisiana.

Saleem said she doesn’t begrudge Jenner or her famous baby for their fame and money, but she wondered why her own daughter’s prospects should dim.

“Why should my Stormi (be told), ’You can’t do it, you can’t have it?” she asked. “I have nothing personal against (Jenner). I’m excited and I’m happy for her. It’s not personal. It’s business.”

Jenner’s attorney did not respond to messages seeking comment.

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