Everyone from Beyoncé to Bella Hadid to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez has been seen with the now iconic Telfar bag. Launching their bags in 2014, Telfar has always been a brand that pushes the boundaries of luxury. Telfar Clemens founded the brand back in 2005 as a mostly apparel-focused gender-neutral fashion line. Now they might be prepping to bring that same accessible elegance to a cosmetic line.
The rumors of a beauty launch from Telfar stem from an announced resolution to a recent scuffle over trademarked logos between the New York-based Telfar and the beauty brand Charlotte Tilbury.
The logos are definitely similar, both with the letter ‘T’ with the letter ‘C’ surrounding it. The only reason this hasn’t come up before is because there hasn’t been any overlap in the kinds of products each brand sells. You know Charlotte Tilbury isn’t putting out purses, so they can both exist without harming the other’s business.
So, What Changed?
Well, back in 2021, Telfar filed to register their TC logo, including on goods in Classes 3 (colognes, perfumes, and cosmetics) and 9 (eyewear). In response, Charlotte Tilbury filed opposition due to the logos being “confusingly similar.”
Charlotte Tilbury argues that their history as a beauty brand, first launched in 2014, makes it clear who the trademark belongs to.
“There is no issue as to priority,” counsel for Tilbury says, as “the filing dates, first use dates, and registration dates of Charlotte Tilbury’s registrations for the Charlotte Tilbury CT marks are before the filing date listed in [Telfar’s] application.”
Telfar pushed back, asking for the opposition to be dropped. But behind the scenes, the brands were already settling things privately.
Ultimately, Telfar moved to drop the trademark application specifically for Classes 3 and 9. That means Telfar won’t be slapping their TC logo on any lipsticks or fragrances. But it doesn’t mean they won’t go on to make any.
The Takeaway
This trademark scuff and resolution doesn’t automatically mean we’ll see Telfar’s unique brand of affordable luxury in the beauty aisle any time soon. But it does give us a good idea of what the brand’s future looks like.
And it looks like Telfar is planning to expand.
They may need to take their logo back to the drawing table for a potential beauty line, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see the brand expand into cosmetics. After all, Clemens himself once claimed that Telfar was “bigger than fashion.”
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