“It’s my name—why can’t I use it?” Kahi loses trademark lawsuit against cosmetics brand KAHI

[Financial News]  It has emerged belatedly that singer Kahi, formerly of the group After School, lost a trademark lawsuit against cosmetics brand KAHI, resulting in the registration of her “KAHI” trademark for dietary supplements being definitively invalidated.
According to a report by Donghaeng Media Sidae on the 19th, the Patent Court ruled in favor of cosmetics company KAHI on April 23 in a lawsuit it had filed seeking to invalidate Kahi’s trademark registration. Kahi appealed, but withdrew the appeal a week later, and the ruling became final on May 20.
Kahi had applied in May 2021 to register the “KAHI” trademark for use on dietary supplements and other products, and received approval for registration in December 2023.
The cosmetics company argued that the registration should be invalidated because the English spelling was identical to its brand name and could cause consumers to confuse the products’ origins. Kahi countered that she had worked under the stage name “Kahi” before the cosmetics company was established and had simply used that name unchanged as her trademark.
The Intellectual Property Trial and Appeal Board accepted Kahi’s argument, saying cosmetics and dietary supplements were not similar goods and were not closely related economically. The Patent Court, however, found that given the recognition of the KAHI cosmetics brand and the relationship between the two product categories, consumers could mistake them for products from the same company.
The court found that consumers recognized the brand as widely known, taking into account that cosmetics brand KAHI had sold products through online and offline channels and TV home-shopping programs since April 2020; that it had appeared as product placement (PPL) in 25 dramas, including “Extraordinary Attorney Woo,” by the end of 2023; and that sales exceeded 10 million units about a year and a half after its launch.
The court ruled, “Cosmetics and dietary supplements with beauty benefits have in common that they are used in ways that act directly on the human body for the purpose of maintaining or improving health or enhancing beauty.” It added, “Given the growing trend of companies producing and selling both cosmetics and dietary supplements, consumers could mistake the two products for being from the same company.”
Kahi debuted in 2009 as a member of the group After School and released hit songs including “Diva,” “Because of You” and “Bang!”.
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