On June 23, 2019, Kim Kardashian West announced the release of a line of shapewear called “Kimono Intimates,” a play on the reality star’s first name and the name for the Japanese kimono garment. The name seemed to fit snugly with Kardashian West’s “Kimoji”-branded phone app, perfume, and clothing line. On June 19, just prior to the brand announcement, Kimono Intimates filed trademark applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for KIMONO, a stylized version of KIMONO, and four other KIMONO-formative marks for a variety of goods and services. By the time of the brand announcement, Kimono Intimates had already received a 2(e)(1) refusal from the USTPO for descriptiveness, given that Kimono Intimates had attempted to register KIMONO for, among other things, kimonos themselves. But the company’s true obstacle came not from the USPTO, but from the general public.
When Kardashian West officially announced Kimono Intimates, the company faced an immediate international blowback. Critics and consumers asserted that the name “Kimono” appropriated and disrespected Japanese culture. Japan’s trade minister, Hiroshige Seko, pledged that he would send officials to Washington, D.C. for talks with U.S. trademark officials and urged the USPTO to “appropriately” handle the applications. The Los Angeles Times gleefully proclaimed, “Kim Kardashian Just Trademarked ‘Kimono.’ Let the backlash begin.” In the wake of that backlash, the company abandoned its trademark applications and relaunched the shapewear line under the new name “Skims.”
