Reality television star and model Kim Kardashian and her company, Kimsaprincess Inc., are being sued for the endorsement and promotion of a selfie case called LuMee that allegedly committed patent infringement, TMZ reports.
LuMee is an iPhone case with built-in lights, designed to give a selfie photographer ideal lighting for their photo. According to the complaint, Hooshmand Harooni filed a 2013 patent for an “integrated lighting accessory and case for a mobile phone device” that he then licensed to Snaplight, which manufactures a phone case very similar to LuMee. Harooni and Snaplight allege that LuMee copied Snaplight’s licensed and patented design, which is now struggling due to Kardashian’s endorsement of LuMee to her over 165 million social media followers.
“It has been extremely difficult for Snaplight to compete in the selfie case market,” Snaplight claims. Kardashian regularly posts photos of her taking a selfie with the product and has posed with the likes of former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and supermodel Naomi Campbell to promote LuMee. Kardashian and her company receive a cut of LuMee’s profits.
Snaplight wants the court to block Kardashian and her company from promoting and using the LuMee cases and asks for damages of $100 million.
A representative for the Kardashians told TMZ that “the patent lawsuit filed by Snaplight has no merit and is just another attempted shakedown. Kim has done absolutely nothing wrong.”
This marks Kardashian’s second product infringement lawsuit in just the past week. Last Wednesday, the news broke that Kardashian was sued for copyright infringement by the founder of makeup company Kjaer Weis, Kirsten Kjaer Weis. Weis alleges that the products in Kardashian’s cosmetic line, KKW Beauty, bear logos too similar to hers in a “deliberate” attempt to confuse consumers and cheat Weis out of customers.
[Images via Shutterstock and Kardashian’s Instagram]