UK small business owner to face L’Oréal at tribunal over trademark dispute | Nottinghamshire

A small business owner is set to face cosmetics giant L’Oréal in court next week over a trademark dispute that she says has had a devastating impact on her.

Rebecca Dowdeswell, 49, from Nottinghamshire, has been embroiled in a three-year legal battle with the French company since claiming that using the name nkd for her business would cause “consumer confusion” with her range of Naked beauty products.

Dowdeswell was forced to close one of its two nkd salons and pay over £30,000 in legal fees as it battles the £170bn company, which instructs top law firm Baker McKenzie.

“There has never been any question or evidence of consumer confusion. From my perspective, we operate in very different segments of the beauty market. I am only interested in waxing and epilation,” she told the intellectual property office (IPO) court on Wednesday.

“The three products I have launched under the NKD name are related to post-epilation care, whereas they only use the Naked brand in a handful of eyeshadow palettes and then a few products that involve very specific makeup.

“And the two brand names are spelled and pronounced differently, so I’m always pronounced ‘nk-d’, they’re always pronounced ‘naked’.”

Dowdeswell said he founded his business in 2009, a year before L’Oréal launched its first Naked product in the UK.

His trademark expired in 2019, at which point he said he had a six-month window to automatically renew it, but forgot about it due to Covid, so he said, “I totally threw my hands up.” L’Oréal objected when it came close to renewing the contract in 2022.

“We had already been living together for over 12 years by then,” Dowdeswell said. “£30,000 plus legal fees isn’t a lot of money for a large company, but for a very small business like mine it was truly devastating. And the bigger impact was the depletion of my resources and the distraction it created for me, draining my time, energy and focus.”

He said it was the need to focus on the case that led him to close his original and largest venue in Nottingham at the end of 2023.

Dowdeswell received some good news earlier this week when L’Oréal narrowed the scope of its appeal; This means her remaining salon in Leicester will not need to be renamed and she will be able to use the nkd brand for some of her beauty services and products.

But the two sides remain at odds on other issues, and he said the company’s late concession was consistent with “a deliberate strategy to crush me, waste my legal fees and hope it never goes all the way to trial.”

“I’m really angry that no one is holding L’Oréal accountable. And I really, really hope they do on Wednesday.”

A L’Oréal spokesperson said: “L’Oréal’s position has never changed or updated since 2022. We are always ready to work together to support Rebecca Dowdeswell’s business objectives, respecting our long-standing trademark rights.

“Proceedings are still ongoing and we are fully committed to resolving this matter in a mutually acceptable manner.”