The founders of Nude Skincare are suing Stella McCartney’s company for the use of the word “nude” in her new fragrance, Stella Nude, according to the Daily Mail.
Ali Hewson, who is married to U2’s Bono, and Bryan Meehan, who founded organic food chain Fresh and Wild, are suing Stella McCartney Parfums for compensation over branding and use of the word “nude”.
— Read more at Stella sued by Nude over perfume name at Cosmetics International.
Oh, that’s not good. I really, really like ‘Nude’ as a name for her new offering, but I guess she’ll probably change it now. It is, however, NOT a lighter EDT version of ‘Stella’, as stated in that article.
I’m not a lawyer, but don’t see why she should have to change the name…seems to me to be too common a word for anyone to prevent anyone else from using it.
Agreed! Plus, it’s not a brand name – i.e., Stella is the brand, Nude is a product. I can imagine it would be a problem if she were trying to create a company called Nude Fragrances or something. I’m not a lawyer either, but it seems like Stella will win this one!
These things seem more borned out of ego than anything else. Remember when Robert Redford sue that little diner, I think because their name was Sundance diner or cafe or something. He just looked ridiculous. I get the feeling celebrities or those in the correct circles seem to think that it is only right and proper that everyone should (in a stampy foot tantrum sort of way) only associate them with whatever word or words they’re trying to lay claim to. I guess when you’re surrounded by so many ‘yes men/women’ that you completely lose your grip on reality.
Agree with all of that! Forgot about the Sundance story.
I mean, borne. ‘borned’ – eek!
or born, even. holy cow I need coffee.
Why pick on Stella McC? Loads of other companies have got big Nude lines at the moment, including Dior and YSL itself. And those are cosmetics, a greater threat to a skincare brand than a perfume flanker. Seems bizarre to me.
Yep, exactly.
The woman is an unmitigated a**. I hope that lawsuit gets laughed right out of court. Some people have too much money and too much ego to ever take seriously.
Don’t know her, but agree in theory — it’s quite silly.
This strikes me as a ridiculous lawsuit! I am not impressed with Bono’s wife.
humbleness and common sense appear to diminish in direct proportion to increased wealth and fame (or one’s husband’s wealth and fame..). Someone should send her a full list of every beauty and fragrance product on the market with nude in the name and suggest that you know, just to be consistent, she ought to sue each and every one of them.
Agree. I had never heard of her, now I’m not impressed with her either.
His wife, nor him, either. He annoys the bejeezus out of me. I wonder if there’s an undercurrent of Beatles envy there… a secret feud between the Beatles and U2, perhaps?
Well, this is really going to throw a wrench into the art world….sculptors and painters will now have to create pieces labelled as “persons of various genders without cloth coverings” since the word “nude” now should be for the exclusive use of Ali Hewson. ….silly me, I’m just so unobservant, I never noticed that little patent mark “R” next the word nude…..
What a ridiculous ploy for a bit of press coverage! In fact I’d like to see Ali Hewson get a hefty fine for irresponsible waste of the court’s time.
LOL
HA!
thats ridiculous
Yes.
What about Bill Blass’ Nude fragrance? They should sue him too 😉
Or better yet, Bill Blass should sue Stelle McCartney because his scent came first and there could be more confusion among consumer between his scent and Stella Nude.
The whole idea of trademarking is to make a disctinct identity that will not confuse the consumer. i.e.: associated the word “nude” with the product “perfume”. But since their company is making cosmetics, it looks like the only reason they’re doing it is to get more attention. I doubt they will win this case but we shall see.
You beat me to it! Bill Blass had a triad of scents: Nude, Hot, and Basic Black. His estate should sue the bejesus out of Benetton (they had a pair of scents, Hot and Cold), Givenchy (Hot Couture), Ralph Lauren (Ralph Hot), and Davidoff (Hot Water). For starters.
Strictly speaking, the scent itself is called Stella Nude…it’s a flanker to Stella, not a new scent. And guessing that perhaps Bill Blass doesn’t own the name Nude either!
Glad I read this before I said the same . . . let them all sue each other. Then they can sue over “eau de toilette” and “eau de parfum” on the bottle. Who had it first? They should definitely sue.
This nude-to-do makes me nervous to take a shower 😉 Besides Blass, what about Bijan, and the EL Amber Nude-are they willing to take on the Big Guys? Silly-ness, completely.
well, for heaven’s sake—make sure you’re not NUDE for your shower or you’ll get served papers for sure! Perhaps, as you step into the shower—shout out as loud as you can : I’M FULLY CLOTHED!!!!
Or just wear cut-offs, like Tobias Fünke, the never-nude from Arrested Development!
But she’d probably still sue you over the term “Never-nude.”
ROTFL
Meritless, frivolous lawsuit – what ridiculous waste of time and resources. This really does make Bono’s wife look petty and small.
Sure does.
I grew up with an Ali Hewson. Maybe she should sue Bono’s wife for stealing her name. Everything is now fair game, apparently.
LOL!!!!! 😀
There are 2 girls at my school with the same name as me. One of them is a year older but had a different last name until she was like 12. The other one is younger.
So I had it first D:<
I'm suing both of them
uh-oh, now I’m worried about all the other “Daisys” on MUA—what if they sue me for being Daisy????
Beat them to it! You should sue THEM!
yeah, I could add something for my pain and suffering too! The loss of my sense of individuality when I learned there were so many IMPOSTERS!
Excellent!
This lawsuit sounds like the biggest publicity grab ever.
Can’t see that it’s good publicity, but I guess some people feel any publicity is good publicity.
you can’t copyright “nude”. daft thickos.
I hope not. I know zilch about copyright law, much less UK copyright law.
I am not a lawyer (to say the least), but I believe the problem is piggybacking on an established name; you can’t open a restaurant and call it McDonald’s Steakhouse, because the McDonalds lawyers will rightly argue that the name of your establishment is deliberately designed to confuse the customer into thinking that there is some relationship between their brand and yours. It sounds almost ridiculous, but it used to be a huge problem: a century ago, Nabisco had a popular line of biscuits under the name Uneeda (the advertising tag line when the product was introduced was “Do you know Uneeda Biscuit?”). A huge number of imitators sprang up with such names as Ulika, Iwanta, Uwanta, and Ilika. Nabisco sued them all and won.
I still think it’s a stupid lawsuit, but then, I’d never heard of Nude Skincare before. And now I have! Maybe that was the point of the suit, then: to drum up some cheap publicity.
I can see that, but there are too many fragrances with the word “nude” preceding it. Youth Dew Amber Nude, for one.
Heads up, panyhose makers and makeup brands; why not sue her? Lots of “nude” there, for decades.
Guess everyone will just have to change the name to “nekkid.”
as in “hot, nekkid cowboys?” this conversation is getting better by the minute!
Just as long as it’s not something crass like ‘butt-nekkid’. That would just be wrong.
that entirely depends upon the nekkid butt!
Nude as a color is Beige… should Chanel be worried? 😉
Excellent point! 😉
Sounds as awful as the Liz Zorn/Bond “Scent of Peace” saga. Companies trying to overtake commonly used words just irritates me. I dislike Ali Hewson and Bono for their pretentious holier than thou Edun label and messiah complexes and this episode just confirms my instinctive dislike of their public profiles. Sorry, rant over.
It’s rant-worthy, no doubt.