Singer Katy Perry could be facing a major setback after the latest decision in her long-running legal dispute with Australian designer Katie Perry.
The clash between the chart-topping artist and the Sydney-based fashion entrepreneur has been developing for years.
The designer, who now uses the name Katie Taylor, registered the business name “Katie Perry” in 2007 and later moved to trademark it.
From 2008, she began selling her clothing through local markets, alongside running a website and maintaining multiple social media profiles under the Katie Perry branding.
As the singer’s profile rose, Taylor was contacted and asked to stop using the name, and she was told there were plans to challenge the trademark application—though that opposition was later abandoned.
Taylor has said: “I had never heard of the singer when I started my label. I was simply building a fashion business under the name I was born with.”
In 2019, Taylor launched trademark infringement proceedings, pointing to merchandise—such as jackets, hoodies, T-shirts and sweatpants—sold during the singer’s 2014 tour, arguing this breached trademark rules.
Taylor initially succeeded in 2023, but the outcome was reversed in 2024 after an appeal by the singer.
On March 11, 2026, Australia’s High Court found that Taylor’s use of the name had not damaged the US singer’s reputation and had not created confusion in the marketplace.
The judges reasoned that the singer’s reputation in Australia was so widely established that consumers encountering Taylor’s clothing label would be unlikely to mix the two up.
The court also dismissed claims from the singer’s legal team that the singer had already built a substantial reputation in Australia when Taylor sought trademark registration in 2008, noting that any reputation did not extend to clothing at that time.
Following the decision the designer Katie Perry said: “This has been an incredibly long and difficult journey.
“But today confirms what I always believed – that trademarks should protect businesses of all sizes.
“This case has never just been about a name.
“It has been about protecting small business in Australia, for standing up for what is right and showing that we all matter.”
According to a Guardian report, a representative for the pop singer said in a statement that Katy Perry ‘never sought to close down Ms. Taylor’s business or stop her selling clothes under the KATIE PERRY label’.
They added: “Today, by a 3:2 decision, the high court determined that Ms. Taylor’s trademark can remain on the register. The court [also] sent the case back to the Full Federal Court to determine issues raised by Katy Perry, including Ms. Taylor’s 10-year delay in bringing her case against Katy Perry.”