The French company is opposing Rebecca Dowdeswell’s bid to renew the trademark for her business name, nkd, in Leicester city centre.
L’Oréal has a trademark for a line of beauty products named NAKED and has informed the 48-year-old that using the word nkd would cause “consumer confusion”.
Ms Dowdeswell said she had spent more than £30,000 fighting L’Oréal’s rejection to her trademark application.
The mother of two from Radcliffe-on-Trent in Nottinghamshire said the pressure from the conflict influenced her decision to downsize her business and close a salon she previously ran in Nottingham.
L’Oréal informed the news that it had made Ms. Dowdeswell an offer “that supports her business aspirations.”.
She contested this, stating that the firm had continued to fight her trademark application to register NKD as a toiletry trademark.
Mrs Dowdeswell registered nkd as a trademark when she started her business in 2009, but said her issues started when it expired ten years later.
She claimed she had a six-month opportunity to renew it but forgot.
“I should’ve renewed it right immediately. I did not. “That was a huge mistake,” she stated.
“That six-month term coincided with the launch of Covid, causing turmoil for all businesses, including beauty salons, and I missed the expiry.
