NeNe Leakes is about to take her “Girl, bye.” phrase to court (no, it’s not cause Cynthia is filing for divorce)! According to “Black-owned family business” Tees in the Trap, a company that creates tees referencing pop culture and the “urban girl experience,” NeNe lifted their slogan and their t-shirt design, but then issued them a Cease & Desist letter for infringing on her territory! Oh dear.
NeNe became known for using the phrase “Girl, bye” on Real Housewives Of Atlanta, but this season she decided to expand on her vernacular by creating a line of tees that features all of NeNe’s “infamous” sayings – “Girl, bye.” included.
Unfortunately Tees in the Trap was already producing a tee that looks remarkably similar to what NeNe has brought to the market. They claim NeNe spotted one of THEIR tees in an Atlanta retailer – she was even photographed wearing it (see below) – and decided to co-opt the idea for herself! Then NeNe trademarked the phrase and is now demanding Tees in the Trap stop using it. Oh dear.
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Tees in the Trap sent Necole Bitchie a letter describing the situation with NeNe from their perspective. Below is the letter, unedited, in its entirety, including photos also provided by the company.
Tees in the Trap sent our retailer Olori Swank of Swank Blue several of our shirts at the end of October to sell at her pop up shop in Atlanta. Nene Leakes visited the shop on November 1st 2014 and purchased our black and white Girl Bye tee in large that was stamped with our logo in the collar.
A few weeks (est.) later she posts a photo of herself wearing our shirt on Instagram. Of course her fans went wild about the shirt saying she needs to be selling this shirt.
Two weeks later she launches an online shop with the same exact design as our Girl Bye tee – a shirt we’ve been selling since we launched in April 2014. Of course we were infuriated and confused. Nene claims to be above shady business dealings, but blatantly stole our shirt design and store concept.
While we can’t stop her from selling a Girl Bye tee, we did legally stop her from selling a design that looked exactly like ours. That must have made Nene upset, that we had her shirt removed and she had no power or control over doing otherwise.
She has now changed the font completely and is selling her own version of the shirt, which was completely fine with us until she had her lawyers send us a cease and desist letter saying that we had no right to have her shirt taken down and since she’s more popular and made the saying “Girl Bye” famous that she has the exclusive right to use it on shirts and we don’t, so we need to take ours down. NO ACTUAL legal defense other than, she’s more famous.
That’s Bullshit.
Nene filed for a trademark of the words GIRL BYE in January 2015, almost a year after we started selling ours.
Clearly Nene thinks she’s dealing with an amateur. We aren’t a bootleg IG boutique and in some states sending false cease and desist letters is a crime.
What makes us most upset is that we are small. Nene claims to be a rich b-tch, but steals ideas from little people like us and acts like it’s cool.
We are sending this email out to media outlets to prove that celebrities can not steal from small companies and go unnoticed. This is our message to NeNe Leakes, #GirlBye
We will see NeNe Leakes in court if she tries to bully us any further. According to the law, Common Law Trademark rules apply in our case, and we will be victorious!
I think NeNe’s response would be “The thirst is real.” Does that hold up in court? Here’s Tees in the Trap’s shirt from Swankblue.
Well, well – you never win when you play dirt, Ms. Leakes – isn’t that what you say? Perhaps it’s time to take your own advice!
BTW: below is NeNe’s version vs. Tees in the Trap’s version.
Moving on, tonight is a brand-new episode of RHOA. The ladies are back in Atlanta, Cynthia is burning friend contracts and Clawdia is enacting her revenge on Porsha by cozying-up to Kordell. #TheThirstIsREEEEEEAL (and cannot be quenched by a red solo cup) if you want Porsha’s sloppy seconds. Girl… just quit while you’re ahead!
Reality Tea will be live-tweeting, so make sure to join us!
TELL US – DOES TEES IN THE TRAP HAVE A CASE OR ARE THEY JUST THIRSTY?
[Photo Credits: Instagram & Tees in the Trap]
