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Australia|Katie Perry Is Suing Katy Perry in Australia. Wait, What?
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/17/world/australia/katie-perry-suing-katy-perry-australia.html
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The case between the two Perrys could set a precedent leaving some Australian businesses vulnerable to overseas brands.
By Ephrat Livni
Ephrat Livni does not sing. But she is a lawyer who reports on business, and she once ran her own small clothing brand.
April 17, 2025, 4:33 p.m. ET
One is an international pop star who just went to space. The other is a clothing designer. A court in Australia will decide which gets to claim their name.
Katie Perry, an Australian designer with a namesake fashion label, has for years asserted that Katheryn Hudson — the international superstar known to most of the world as Katy Perry — has infringed on her trademark.
Her case made its way through Australian courts for more than five years, with mixed results. The designer won in 2023, but an appeals court reversed that last year, seeming to settle the issue.
Now, Australia’s High Court — the highest court in the land — is revisiting the fight, suggesting that the appeals court may have relied on a faulty premise about fame that could threaten Australian brands.
“This is a tale of two women, two teenage dreams and one name,” one Australian judge said in 2023. But the case has wider implications and raises questions about reputation and the many ways celebrities make money.
The issue between the two Perrys first arose around 2009, the year after the American singer released her hit debut single, “I Kissed a Girl.” The star’s representatives say that they reached out to the designer to make a deal over use of their similar sobriquets, and that she declined. She says she never received an offer.
