The iconic Beverly Hills Hotel has declared war against the LA boutique Kitson over stylized wording, and thescrappy owner isn’t backing downwithout a fight.
In a legal showdown over a trademark dispute, thelegendary pink palaceis accusing Kitson of splashing “Beverly Hills” in a ripped off version of the hotel’s “protected, stylized lettering” sold at its store a mile away from the hotspot hotel.
For decades, the hotel branding has been one of themost recognizable luxury aestheticsin Los Angeles: banana-leaf wallpaper, pink and green color palettes, and distinctive looping cursive script.
Instead of quietly folding after getting hit with legal threats from one of the most glamorous hotels on earth, Kitson owner Fraser Ross allegedly picked up the phone and argued with the hotel’s lawyers before doubling down in writing.
“We will sell through the product with the font you are concerned with and change to another font,” Ross wrote in a September 2023 email cited in the complaint. “We have many fonts with the word Beverly Hills.”
Ross told The California Post he initially asked the hotel if Kitson could simply sell through the inventory because the company had just opened its sprawling 5,000-square-foot Beverly Hills flagship and was “full in inventory.”
“I saw the font everywhere,” Ross said, claiming multiple businesses throughout the city used similar lettering without issue.
Looking at the Kitson Beverly Hills flagship, it’s not hard to see why the hotel might have been irked: the boutique is drenched in the same kind of banana-leaf wallpaper with pink and green colors throughout certain sections that the hotel is famous for.
The drama erupted in August 2023 after the hotel discovered the merch at Kitson featuring “Beverly Hills” written in lettering allegedly mimicking the hotel’s recognizable cursive script, according to the hotel’s lawsuit. The hotel claimed the knockoff style items could confuse shoppers into thinking they were officially connected to the hotel.
Ross, however, insists nobody was confused.
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
