A small enterprise proprietor is making ready to face down the cosmetics large L’Oréal at a tribunal subsequent week over a trademark dispute she says has had a devastating affect on her.
Rebecca Dowdeswell, 49, from Nottinghamshire, has been locked in a three-year authorized battle with the French firm because it claimed her use of the identify nkd for her enterprise would trigger “client confusion” with its personal vary of Bare magnificence merchandise.
Dowdeswell has been compelled to shut one among her two nkd salons and has run up authorized charges of greater than £30,000 combating the £170bn firm, which has instructed top-tier regulation agency Baker McKenzie.
Earlier than the mental property workplace (IPO) tribunal on Wednesday, she mentioned: “There’s by no means been any query or any proof of any client confusion. From my perspective, we function in very completely different sections of the sweetness market. I solely have an curiosity in waxing and hair removing.
“My three merchandise I’ve launched beneath the nkd identify are tied to hair removing aftercare, whereas they solely use the Bare model identify in opposition to a handful of eyeshadow palettes after which a number of different gadgets of very particular make-up.
“After which the 2 model names are spelt and pronounced otherwise, so I’ve all the time been pronounced ‘n-k-d’, they’ve all the time been ‘bare’.”
Dowdeswell launched her enterprise in 2009, a 12 months earlier than L’Oréal launched its first Bare product within the UK, she mentioned.
Her trademark expired in 2019, at which level she mentioned she had a six-month window to mechanically renew it however forgot to due to Covid, for which she mentioned: “I absolutely maintain my fingers up.” When she received spherical to renewing in 2022, L’Oréal objected.
“We had already by then coexisted for over 12 years,” mentioned Dowdeswell. “For a big firm, £30,000 plus in authorized charges is just not some huge cash however to a really small enterprise like mine it’s been actually devastating. And the larger affect has been the drain on my assets and the distraction that this has been to me, the drain on my time, my power, my focus.”
She mentioned it was the necessity to give attention to the case that made her shut down her unique – and largest – salon in Nottingham on the finish of 2023.
Dowdeswell did obtain some excellent news earlier this week when L’Oréal decreased the scope of its objection, which suggests her remaining salon, in Leicester, won’t should be renamed and she will use the nkd model for some magnificence providers and merchandise.
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However the two sides stay in dispute over different points and he or she mentioned the corporate’s late concession was in step with a “deliberate technique to grind me down, to waste my authorized bills and to hope that this by no means will get so far as the listening to.
“I simply really feel actually offended that no person has held L’Oréal to account. And I actually, actually hope that they do get held to account on Wednesday.”
A L’Oréal spokesperson mentioned: “Since 2022 L’Oréal’s place has by no means modified or been up to date. Now we have all the time been keen to work with Rebecca Dowdeswell to help her enterprise aspirations while respecting our longstanding trademark rights.
“The proceedings are nonetheless ongoing and we stay wholly dedicated to resolving this matter in a mutually agreeable method.”
