The XX Factor

The Kylie Jenner–Kylie Minogue Trademark Dispute Was a Battle of the Old School vs. the New

Only one of these Kylies matters.

Loreen Sarkis/Getty Images; Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

No trademark dispute in recent memory has been as Kylie contentious as the one between teen reality celebrity Kylie Jenner and pop star Kylie Minogue over their shared moniker. But for now, Minogue fans have an excuse to shadily hum “Can’t Get You Outta My Head” in the presence of anyone who’s Team Jenner, because this round went to the Australian singer.

The battle began in 2015 when Jenner first tried to register the “term” “Kylie” as a trademark. Last year, Minogue’s team shot back with a notice of opposition. Game, set, match, Kylie, said one Kylie to the other. But then last month, Minogue’s people withdrew the opposition—according to the BBC, this could mean that the two sides reached a settlement. Some outlets are reporting that Jenner’s trademark application was indeed rejected by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. In any case, Kylie seems to have won this one—Minogue, that is.

Minogue first shot to fame as a soap star in Australia, following that up with her 1988 hit song “Locomotion” and a career total of 65 million albums sold.* In documents obtained by Page Six, her team referred to Jenner as a “secondary reality television personality” with the potential to damage Minogue’s successful brand—her Wikipedia page says she’s “often known simply as Kylie,” after all.

It’s true that, as the youngest sibling of the Kardashian family, Kylie Jenner owes much of her fame to having grown up in front of cameras on Keeping Up With the Kardashians. But it’s also true that only an old-school pop star would consider “reality television personality” a dig in light of the way Jenner and her family have reinvented modern fame. Jenner has lately become a beauty mogul, hawking her lip kits far and wide on social media, and had planned to use the trademark to further her business interests.

Even though Minogue emerged victorious from this battle, and was first to plant her flag for Kylies on the internet when she purchased kylie.com in 1996 (a year before Jenner was born), one need only google-search “Kylie” to see that Jenner may be the ultimate champion, as much as dance-pop loyalists might hate to admit it. Jenner dominates search and image results and is one of the most famous people in her generation in a society that is obsessed with youth. Sorry, Kylie (Minogue). It’s Kylie (Jenner’s) world, and you’re just making some of the best dance anthems of all time in it. Still, one does hate to see Kylies fighting in this climate that only seeks to divide Kylies rather than unite them. The real war will be won when the two Kylies combine forces, for the good of plump lips and pop beats everywhere.

*Correction, Feb. 9: This post originally misstated that Minogue starred in a soap in the U.K. It was an Australian soap.