Kanye West’s Yeezy clothing line is his insanely popular passion project where he’s been focusing most of his attention of late, putting music on the back burner until very recently. However, as it turns out, he may not have been paying quite enough attention, as TMZ reports that ‘Ye may have lost ownership of the brand trademark last year to an opportunistic Chinese company that wanted the name for itself.
Apparently, the rapper’s company never renewed the trademark in 2017, essentially abandoning it for all clothing items other than shoes. A Chinese company going by the name Fujian Baby Network Technology Co. filed trademark paperwork for the “Yeezy” brand title for its own clothing products, and now that Kanye’s business group has tried to renew their ownership of the mark, they’ve been blocked by this previous claim.
While it was rumored that the upcoming Season 7 of of the Yeezy line would not feature clothing, instead focusing on shoes, the speculation was refuted by Kanye’s wife Kim Kardashian West. She noted that the site that provided the initial story, Yeezy Mafia, was not actually affiliated with Kanye himself and that the Twitter account has been known to post fake colorways of Yeezy sneakers.
How can a verified account represent Yeezy with false information. You do NOT work for Yeezy and NOT affiliated. How are you gonna believe an account that posts fake color ways 😂😂😂 https://t.co/xkaYC98G7u
— Kim Kardashian (@KimKardashian) March 6, 2018
That’s not the last of Yeezy’s legal drama. The company is also being sued by an outdoor clothing company for supposedly copying its camouflage pattern. It looks like Kanye’s break from clothing design and impending return to music couldn’t come at a better time.