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Kardashian sisters’ Khroma Beauty debut make-up line has been forced to change its name to Kardashian Beauty in a trademark dispute.

WWD reports that the rebrand is being made to end an 8 month-long trademark dispute between the Kardashians and a Florida-based company called Kroma Makeup, which sought $10 million in damages.

An array of Khroma Beauty products had already been produced, promoted and were ready to hit more than 5,000 retailers across the U.S. but now the costly task of relabeling will begin.

Despite the announced changes, the Kardashian’s original website, www.khromabeauty.com, and Facebook page are still currently functioning.

The long-running saga started last June when Lee Tillett, the founder of Kroma Makeup, sent a cease-and-desist letter to Boldface Group Inc, the branding company behind the Kardashian’s Khroma Beauty line, accusing it of “stealing” the name.

Lee Tillett set up her company in 2004 and trademarked the name Kroma – which apparently means “color” in Greek – six years later.

In the legal case she sought $10 million in damages, claiming that the Kardashian sisters’ company, for which they are set to make at least $6.2 million, would cause confusion in the marketplace.

And it appeared that those leading the case agreed. After months of heavy promotion the Kardashians were instructed to stop distributing products this March.

“Tillett has demonstrated that [she] will likely lose business opportunities, customers and goodwill due to Boldface’s use of the confusingly similar Khroma Beauty marks,” Judge Audrey Collins, said in her ruling.

Khroma Beauty has now officially changed its name to Kardashian Beauty to end an 8 month-long trademark dispute

Khroma Beauty has now officially changed its name to Kardashian Beauty to end an 8 month-long trademark dispute

“The court has little doubt that, in short order, the Khroma Beauty products will likely eliminate Tillett’s business entirely, creating irreparable harm sufficient to justify an injunction.”

Boldface Group Inc appealed the decision, seeking to reverse the U.S. District Court’s injunction so Khroma Beauty products could go on sale, but this was not granted.

As a result Khroma Beauty has now officially changed its name to Kardashian Beauty.

Florida native, Lee Tillett, previously told the Orlando Sentinel: “I developed the Kroma line myself, built my business through my own hard work, and took the legal steps necessary to protect it.

“And yet I have now been forced into legal battle with the Kardashians simply because they have decided to take something that doesn’t belong to them.”

In her formal federal court response she claims the promotion of Khroma was likely to mislead customers into thinking her line is associated with the Kardashian sisters.

Lee Tillett added: “The false association is damaging … and threatens to destroy its business.”

According to the counter-claims, Boldface Group Inc had paid the Kardashians an upfront advance of $1 million for licensing rights, with guaranteed minimum royalty payments of $4.6 million to $5.2 million.

As part of the deal, they allegedly have some power over the product line and that Kim Kardashian “proposed” it be called Khroma.

Lee Tillett’s attorney Elliot Gipson claims Kim Kardashian should have known better.

He pointed to discussions by representatives for himself and TLK Fusion, which allegedly acted as Kardashian’s product-placement agent for a show that was being produced by Kim Kardashian.

Elliot Gipson said: “On or about May 2010, representatives for Tillett and TLK Fusion were engaged in discussions regarding the possible product placement of the KROMA cosmetics line on the television reality show special The SPINdustry that was scheduled to air on E! Entertainment Television following an episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians.”

No deal was ever reached, but if this is true she could have had advance knowledge that the name was already in use.

Social network Myspace has announced its fourth major redesign as it seeks to regain relevance in the face of falling numbers.

Myspace, now part-owned by Justin Timberlake, aims to focus more on music and offer deeper integration with Facebook and Twitter.

But it faces stiff competition from online platforms offering to connect artists and fans.

According to measurement firm comScore, the Myspace audience is 54 million.

This is down from hundreds of millions at its peak in 2005.

Social network Myspace has announced its fourth major redesign as it seeks to regain relevance in the face of falling numbers

Social network Myspace has announced its fourth major redesign as it seeks to regain relevance in the face of falling numbers

A message on the website announced the redesign: “We’re hard at work building the new Myspace, entirely from scratch.”

“But we’re staying true to our roots in one important way – empowering people to express themselves however they want,” the message continued.

It called on fans to join “our brand new community” and offered a sneak preview of the resdesign.

Those interested in joining were asked to leave an email contact and “expect an invite soon”.

The new-look Myspace says it aims to put music at the heart. Users can control audio content from a navigation panel and pair photograph albums with playlists in a kind of social media mix tape to mark any occasion.

A Discover tab within the navigation panel will offer access to trending artists, music, mixes, radio, videos, news, and forthcoming concerts. The items can be dragged into personal folders.

There is also an emphasis on what’s called Artist Pages, with the promise of lots of tracks, albums and videos.

MySpace was sold to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp empire in 2005.

It paid $580 million for the social network but users and advertisers left the site for rival social sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

The site underwent a major makeover in 2010, rebranding itself as a “social entertainment site”.

But it wasn’t enough and in June 2011, News Corp sold it to online advertiser Specific Media at a huge loss.

A further rebrand after the sale promised it would become “the number one online community music destination”.

Music and media analyst Mark Mulligan said he thought this latest rebrand was the “deepest” yet.

“At its peak, MySpace was a trailblazer for bringing together fans and artists but it faces stiff competition from sites such as TopSpin and Pledge Music which offer artists tools to establish relationships with fans,” he said.

“It can’t just do what they used to do even if they do it better,” Mark Mulligan said.

“It has to offer artists a reason why they would go there rather than on Facebook. It needs to become a social platform for bands and not just an alternative to Facebook,” he said.

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