Katy Perry Gets Feisty Over The Right To Keep Her Fake Name

noah | June 16, 2009 4:00 pm

Katy Perry’s so-called bi-curiosity isn’t the only thing that’s phony about her; she also doesn’t use her real name (Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson) when she’s performing, perhaps so she can more easily shake off her Christian-pop past. Which is why it’s super-annoying to hear that her people have gotten it in their head to slap a cease-and-desist order on an Australian designer who’s actually named Katie Perry, and who just wants to put out a a line of slouchy loungewear under her own name.

The Australian Perry, who started her Katie Perry luxury loungewear label two years ago and has been trading online and through local markets, as well as participating in local fashion parades, launched a trademark application last September. Last week she received a letter from Queensland-based legal firm Fisher Adams Kelly, acting for the popstar, asking her to stop trading. “I got such a huge shock,” Perry said. “It really felt like I was being intimidated and bullied into signing everything away. “It asked me to give up the trademark, withdraw sale of my clothes, withdraw any advertising and any websites, and sign that I will not in the future use a similar trademark to Katy Perry. I pretty much burst into tears.” Perry, a former menswear fashion manager for retailer David Jones, opened her first retail outlet in the Sydney suburb of Mosman last week, and recently picked up her first stockist, in the NSW south coast town of Kiama. She said while she was born Katie Jane Perry and has never changed her name, she sometimes goes by the name Katie Howell — although her fashion label does not trade under that name. “I love my business. I’m not going to give it away without a fight either,” she said. “I’m not trying to become a singer. I’m not pretending to be her. This is my income. And it’s the livelihood of my contractors as well.”

Oh great, they both use fake names! Poor Katie–she’s probably screwed. And poor women who need to buy clothes, since this is a sign that we’re going to probably see a line of Katy Perry-branded rompers at a store near us soon… perhaps in Kohl’s as soon as the last of the Avril Lavigne hooded sweatshirts clear out? US popstar Katy Perry rocks fashion designer’s world [The Australian via MTV]

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