Twigs about to snap: FKA Twigs and The Twigs get into cease and desist battle
An unexpected spat has been sparked between famous twigs as singer FKA Twigs and the American pop band The Twigs have entered into a cease-and-desist battle.
The fight between the pair extends as far back as 2014, after the Chicago alternative pop band first filed a trademark claim against the British singer, whose real name is Tahliah Barnett, but then “voluntarily” dropped the case shortly after.
However, some 12 years later, The Twigs, comprised of twin sisters Laura and Linda Good, have reared their heads again against Barnett, consistently sending cease and desist letters claiming that the latter’s trademark of the FKA Twigs stage name infringes on their own legal standing.
After the duo have sent repeated correspondence to Barnett saying that her name causes confusion compared to theirs, the Eusexua musician has taken matters into her own hands, and has ordered a judge to put an end to the cease and desist battle.
According to court documents seen by TMZ, the British singer’s lawyers said it is “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.”
Noting the history of the case, the documents state that The Twigs “simply disappeared” for a number of years after their original 2014 case was dropped, before resurfacing and beginning their cease and desist efforts again “out of nowhere” in 2024, per Billboard.
In this time, lawyers for FKA Twigs claim that the singer’s career has grown substantially more than the Chicago pop pair, saying there is no chance of confusion between the pair as “The parties operate in entirely different commercial ecosystems.”
In demonstrating this, they cited statistics that FKA Twigs has 3.2 million monthly listeners on Spotify and more than 300 million views on YouTube, whereas “[The Twigs] have 67 subscribers and 19,332 views on YouTube, 705 followers on Instagram, and 25 monthly listeners on Spotify.”
Neither FKA Twigs nor The Twigs have publicly spoken about the legal battle at this time.
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