The absurdity of the situation simply goes beyond all limits, if you know the context. Let's rewind the film, informs Ukr.Media.
2007. Australian designer Katie Taylor — who is, by birth, Katy Perry — registers a clothing brand under her own name, Katie Perry. Everything is legal, logical, no questions asked.
Then comes 2009. American singer Katy Perry (who is actually Katherine Hudson, but has taken a stage name) is shooting up the charts. And what do her corporate lawyers do? The Australians send a threatening letter: close down your business, delete your website, remove your advertising, because you are allegedly stealing our name.
So a girl with a pseudonym attacked a girl with a real name for using her real name. A level of legal audacity that I genuinely admire.
This legal battle lasted 17 years. Seventeen! In 2007, I was still eating sand on the playground, and these two were already sharing a trademark.
The active legal meat grinder started in 2021. In 2023, the court of first instance unexpectedly sided with the Australian woman — and ruled that it was the singer's merch that infringed the designer's local trademark, and not the other way around. The American pop star immediately filed an appeal (well, who would have doubted, an ego of such magnitude simply does not give up), but now, in March 2026, the High Court of Australia has finally closed the case.
Period. Finita. Victory for the Australian.
Now the designer is recording TikToks and calling it a victory for a small business over a global celebrity brand. A classic David and Goliath story. She says it was an incredibly difficult journey, but now it's proven: trademarks exist not only for giant corporations, but also to protect any business.
And I totally understand her. To endure so many years against the endless budgets of a major star and her army of lawyers is a plot ready for a true-crime documentary on Netflix, only instead of lives, nerve cells were taken. Australian Katie literally won back her right to be herself.
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