FKA Twigs Countersued for Allegedly Using Fame & Money to ‘Destroy’ Indie Band’s Trademark
The Eusexua artist has been hit with legal claims in her escalating court battle with a band called The Twigs.
Black News 
FKA Twigs has been countersued for trademark infringement in her escalating legal war with an indie band called The Twigs.
The Eusexua artist (born Tahliah Barnett) filed a lawsuit earlier this year asking a judge to declare that her stage name does not infringe the moniker “The Twigs” used by Los Angeles-based twin sisters Laura Good and Linda Good. Now, the sisters are leveling trademark claims of their own in a Monday (May 11) countersuit, first obtained and reported by Billboard.
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“Barnett’s use of her greater fame, record label backing, resources, celebrity and market presence to overwhelm The Twigs’ goodwill and misappropriate it infringes counterclaim-plaintiffs’ trademark rights,” reads the countersuit.
The two musical acts previously went to court against each other back in 2014, when The Twigs first sued FKA Twigs for infringing the trademark they’d owned since 1996. The Twigs dropped the lawsuit after losing an initial injunction request, and then things were quiet for a decade.
But the battle started up again in 2024, with The Twigs opposing FKA Twigs’ application for a trademark of her own and sending a cease-and-desist letter demanding the star stop using the name. FKA Twigs then sued the sisters in March, alleging they were trying to “weaponize” baseless claims to extract a seven-figure settlement out of nowhere.
Monday’s counterclaims tell a different story. The Twigs say FKA Twigs didn’t get in their way following the initial lawsuit, since she was primarily based in the United Kingdom, focused more on acting and dancing than music, didn’t register any trademarks and continually distinguished herself from The Twigs with her use of the prefix “FKA.”
According to The Twigs, the situation started to change when FKA Twigs re-entered the music scene with her album Magdelene in 2019. In the years that followed, she inked a deal with Atlantic Records, filed a trademark application covering music and released the Grammy-winning album Eusexua.
Around the same time, The Twigs allege that the star started to drop the “FKA” in certain public appearances. FKA Twigs had first adopted this moniker in 2014 after previously debuting under the name “Twigs,” though it’s not clear if the initial name change was related to her legal dispute with The Twigs.
According to the countersuit, FKA Twigs’ activities over the last few years have been executed to “weaken, if not destroy” The Twigs’ intellectual property rights with her greater fame and money.
“Barnett intentionally used her celebrity and resulting power with the media to act in ways designed to increase the public’s association of Barnett and her musical services with ‘Twigs,’ while eroding and overwhelming counterclaim-plaintiffs’ goodwill … in those same musical channels of commerce,” write The Twigs’ lawyers.
The Twigs are now seeking a legal injunction that would bar FKA Twigs from using that stage name going forward. They also want unspecified financial damages for trademark infringement and unfair competition.
Reps for FKA Twigs did not immediately return a request for comment on the counterclaims on Tuesday (May 12).
