{"id":16394,"date":"2025-07-26T17:23:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T21:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2025\/07\/26\/salon-owner-ready-for-key-loreal-trademark-dispute-hearing\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T17:23:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T21:23:15","slug":"salon-owner-ready-for-key-loreal-trademark-dispute-hearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2025\/07\/26\/salon-owner-ready-for-key-loreal-trademark-dispute-hearing\/","title":{"rendered":"Salon owner ‘ready’ for key L’Or\u00e9al trademark dispute hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Jodi Law<\/span><\/p>\n

BBC News, East Midlands<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

A salon owner says she is “ready to fight again” ahead of a crucial hearing in her long-running trademark dispute with global cosmetics firm L’Or\u00e9al. <\/p>\n

Rebecca Dowdeswell attempted to renew the trademark of her Leicester-based business – nkd – in 2022 but the French firm opposed the move.<\/p>\n

L’Or\u00e9al has its own trademark on a series of beauty products called Naked, and claims her use of the name nkd would cause “consumer confusion”.<\/p>\n

The 49-year-old said she was feeling in a “much stronger position”, now an Intellectual Property Office (IPO) hearing date had been set for the case. It will take place later this year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The mother of two, from Radcliffe-on-Trent in Nottinghamshire, held the nkd trademark name since 2009, and it expired in 2019.<\/p>\n

She said she had a six-month window to renew it but forgot, which she described as a “big mistake”.<\/p>\n

“That six-month window ran into the start of Covid and chaos ensued for all businesses – including beauty salons – and I missed the expiry,” she previously told the BBC.<\/p>\n

“When I came to re-register the trademark, I was essentially starting from scratch, not renewing an existing one.”<\/p>\n

She said L’Or\u00e9al objected on the basis it owned the Urban Decay make-up brand, which has a range of eye shadow palettes called Naked.<\/p>\n

She added: “There has never been any evidence of consumer confusion. In 15 years of trading, no-one has ever said ‘are you the same brand as Naked by Urban Decay?'”<\/p>\n

Ms Dowdeswell told the BBC the matter was due to be decided by the government’s IPO, but that hearing had been postponed.<\/p>\n

The IPO blamed the delay on “very significant” caseloads, in part due to Brexit.<\/p>\n

It said before Brexit, trademarks could be registered with either the European Union (EU) or the UK, or both.<\/p>\n

After Brexit, 1.4 million trademarks that were with the EU transferred over to take effect in the UK.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the BBC, Ms Dowdeswell – who has spent more than \u00a330,000 contesting L’Or\u00e9al’s opposition – said she had “enjoyed” a temporary break from the proceedings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“When I came to re-register them post-Covid, L’Or\u00e9al logged its objections and I’ve been having to defend myself for the last three years,” Ms Dowdeswell said.<\/p>\n

“It’s been really stressful to deal with, but I’ve enjoyed metaphorically putting it away and having a break from it.<\/p>\n

“In hindsight, I realised how much of a toll it took on me last year. On me personally with my family, my young children and with the business.<\/p>\n

“I am ready to fight again. I think L’Or\u00e9al thinks I’m just going to go away – and I’m not.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

In response, a spokesperson for L’Or\u00e9al said: “We are wholly committed to resolving any misunderstanding there might have been with Rebecca Dowdeswell.<\/p>\n

“From the beginning of our exchanges with her lawyers in 2022, we have communicated an offer that supports her business aspirations whilst respecting our longstanding trademark rights.<\/p>\n

“We look forward to resolving this matter in a mutually agreeable way.”<\/p>\n

The IPO confirmed a hearing date had been set for 5 November.<\/p>\n

It added a decision would usually be expected about nine months later.<\/p>\n

Ms Dowdeswell added: “To coin a phrase that L’Or\u00e9al knows very well, I’ve often asked myself – ‘is it worth it?'” <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jodi Law BBC News, East Midlands A salon owner says she is “ready to fight again” ahead of a crucial hearing in her long-running trademark dispute with global cosmetics firm L’Or\u00e9al. Rebecca Dowdeswell attempted to renew the trademark of her Leicester-based business – nkd – in 2022 but the French firm opposed the move. L’Or\u00e9al […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,21,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-market","category-news","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}