Trademark Battle Brews as FKA twigs Moves Against The Twigs
The dispute dates back to 2013
FKA twigs (born Tahliah Barnett) has filed a complaint in the Southern District Court of New York, seeking a ruling that her stage name does not violate the trademark rights of ’90s American indie pop duo The Twigs.
Long running dispute:
The Twigs, comprising sisters Laura and Linda Good, first became aware of Barnett’s stage name in 2013.
They filed an unsuccessful trademark infringement suit in 2014.
Then... nothing, for 10 years.
In May 2024, The Twigs issued a cease-and-desist letter to Barnett, followed by another in 2025.
That year they also initiated proceedings to block Barnett’s US trademark registration for FKA TWIGS (she had previously secured trademark registrations in the UK, EU, Japan and China).
The complaint alleges that the sisters have demanded a seven-figure payout “for the status quo of co-existence.”
The ask:
Barnett is seeking a declaration of non-infringement, which will allow her pending US trademark application to proceed to registration, as per Music Business Worldwide.
Citing The Twigs’ decade of inaction, Barnett’s legal team also point to the fact they “operate in entirely different commercial ecosystems” as proof their co-existence is unlikely to cause consumer confusion.
As evidence they state that, at the time of filing, Barnett has 3.2 million monthly Spotify listeners and over 300 million YouTube views, while The Twigs have 67 subscribers and less than 20,000 views on YouTube, 705 followers on Instagram, and 25 monthly listeners on Spotify.
The defendants are yet to respond.
👋 Disclosures & Transparency Block
This story was written with information from Digital Music News and Music Business Worldwide.
We covered it because it’s news of a lawsuit involving a high-profile artist.
