FKA Twigs countersued by The Twigs in bid to ban her from using stage name
FKA Twigs is facing a new countersuit from Chicago indie duo The Twigs, who are attempting to bar her from using her stage name.
The legal battle first began more than a decade ago in 2013, when the British singer, real name Tahliah Barnett, reached out to The Twigs regarding calling herself FKA Twigs.
She wrote to the band’s Laura and Linda Good, “I appreciate that you’ve been releasing music and performing as The Twigs a lot longer than I have been Twigs so I thought I should reach out and say hi and check that you are ok with it.”
Days later, the siblings informed her they “own the U.S. Trademark for the name ‘The Twigs’ for use in music and entertainment…So we are sorry, but unfortunately the law dictates that we are not ok with you using the name ‘Twigs’ or any derivation thereof.”
Subsequently, Barnett is alleged to have offered them $15,000 for a “co-existence agreement”, which was rejected. The Twigs then entered legal proceedings against Barnett in 2014, which they later voluntarily dismissed.
In March, it emerged that The Twigs re-engaged with legal action in 2024 and had been sending cease and desist letters, claiming that the latter’s trademark of the FKA Twigs stage name infringes on their own legal standing.
In response, FKA Twigs subsequently took legal action herself, ordering a judge to put an end to the cease-and-desist battle.
In her legal filings, FKA Twigs’ lawyers said it was “inconceivable that any member of the relevant consuming public could confuse Barnett’s offerings with those of Defendants or believe that the parties are affiliated or related to each other.”
Now, The Twigs have issued a countersuit. Per Billboard, it reads, “Barnett’s use of her greater fame, record label backing, resources, celebrity and market presence to overwhelm The Twigs’ goodwill and misappropriate it infringes counterclaim-plaintiffs’ trademark rights.”
The countersuit also alleges that Barnett began to drop the ‘FKA’ from her stage-name around the release of her 2019 album, Magdalene, and accuse her of having “intentionally used her celebrity and resulting power with the media to act in ways designed to increase the public’s association of Barnett and her musical services with ‘Twigs,’ while eroding and overwhelming counterclaim-plaintiffs’ goodwill … in those same musical channels of commerce.”
The Chicago group are now requesting a legal injunction to prevent Barnett from using the stage name of ‘FKA Twigs’, ‘Twigs’, or any “confusingly similar designation for live or recorded musical performances”, per Music Business Worldwide.
The Twigs are also seeking unspecified financial damages.
Neither Barnett or The Twigs have publicly commented on the ongoing legal proceedings.
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