Jeffree Star Has Been Involved in Some Intense Lawsuits Through the Years

For someone as polarizing as Jeffree Star, it's not surprising that he's been involved in a couple lawsuits over the years. The beauty influencer and entrepreneur founded Jeffree Star Cosmetics back in 2014 after ending his brief music career.

 Since 2014, he's been in at least two public lawsuits regarding his makeup line (and countless feuds with other celebs and influencers, but we don't have to get into that). Both involved Jeffree allegedly copying indie makeup brands' designs. Are both cases just coincidence? You decide. 

On April 4, 2017, Black Moon Cosmetics came after Jeffree Star's collaboration with Manny Gutierrez (aka, Manny MUA) for copyright and trademark infringement. The lawsuit claimed that the packaging of Jeffree and Manny's packaging of their new collection was directly ripping off Black Moon Cosmetics. BMC states that they were "the first cosmetic company to use packaging incorporating a mark consisting of holographic crescent moon on a black background to distribute cosmetic products." The similarities, BMC argued, would cause confusion.

Interestingly, Manny MUA's Makeup Geek collection already had holographic crescent moon branding. Coincidence? Or an obvious theft of packaging design? See for yourself.

Is it just a coincidence? Fashion Magazine obtained a screenshot from Black Moon's law firm, which shows a conversation between the makeup brand and Manny MUA. The conversation shows Manny addressing how much he "loves the packaging." Hmmmm.

However, both Jeffree and Manny denied that they purposely stole the packaging design. At the collaboration's launch party, Jeffree announced that, "[Manny's] logo's been a moon for years and my logo's a star. We combined them. It was easy — the stars and moon align." Manny added, "It was a true collaboration." 

"So, sadly, someone had a similar thing, but everything is being handled legally. The collaboration's good. Everything's happening, and there's no drama," Jeffree said. "A lot of people love to use my name for press and they love to get dramatic. Coincidences happen, but I'm really happy with the way everything turned out," Jeffree concluded.

A day later, Jeffree and Manny released a statement, saying that the lawsuit had been resolved: "The issue has been resolved. The Jeffree Star Cosmetics x Manny MUA collaboration will launch as planned on April 8th. We are so grateful for continued support of our fans and are excited to share this moment with them." And that was that. 

On July 10, 2017 indie makeup brand Lunatick Cosmetics filed a lawsuit against Jeffree Star, saying the YouTuber ripped off their "bullet-shaped" lipstick packaging. The lawsuit claims that Lunatick Cosmetics trademarked their lipstick shape on Dec. 11, 2014 and were given the actual trademark in April 2016. Lunatick started selling their bullet-shaped Apocalipstick collection on May 8, 2015. On September 30, 2016, Jeffree started selling his Lip Ammunition collection.

Here are Jeffree Star Cosmetics' lipsticks:

And just for comparison, here are Lunatick Cosmetic Labs' lipsticks. Yeah, it's kind of difficult to deny the similarities, right? Once again, the lawsuit wasn't all that suprising.

According to Revelist, the court documents show that Lunatick Cosmetics filed the lawsuit for "trademark infringement, false designation of origin, and unfair competition." The cosmetics brand complained that by releasing the Lip Ammunition collection, Jeffree was purposely confusing customers.

On Oct. 1, 2015, Jeffree responded to the lawsuit on his Instagram page, stating that he designed his lipstick shape two years ago: "I actually started & created this design TWO years ago and it got put on hold while I developed the liquid lip (which was supposed to come out after this product!) but the liquid lip design was done first so we moved ahead and have been perfecting the formula for months now!" 

But it wasn't only the shape of the lipstick that Lunatick Cosmetics was upset about. The way that Jeffree promoted the protect was very similar to how Lunatick Cosmetics promoted their product.

You can watch a video that breaks down all the similarities and why Lunatick Cosmetics filed the lawsuit below. It's hard to deny the similarities, that's for sure.

The latest update we have is that Lunatick Cosmetics has taken the case to Federal District Court. They made the statement:

"On Monday, July 10, 2017, LunatiCK Cosmetic Labs, LLC., a small, well-respected creator of cosmetic products with radically-themed presentations, filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles against Jeffree Star Cosmetics. In the lawsuit, LunatiCK stated claims for trademark and trade dress infringement and unfair competition in order to protect LunatiCK's federally registered 'bullet cartridge shape' lipstick trade dress."

The statement continued, "Efforts to resolve the trademark dispute were unsuccessful. Despite Lunatick's best efforts with Jeffree Star, Lunatick determined it could not, on a consensual basis, stop the larger company's wrongful exploitation of Lunatick's protected mark status and was forced to seek the assistance of the Federal District Court."

The statement concluded: "In reflecting on the litigation, Lunatick expresses the concern that people appreciate the Company is about ensuring competitors respect our unique designs, not to stop others from marketing their own. We are hopeful a prompt resolution that achieves that outcome is obtained."

These days, Jeffree is still getting into trouble — but his fans' qualms are less about his makeup and more about his social distancing crimes. That is, people claimed the YouTube influencer wasn't practicing social distancing rules after he posted a photo of himself and an employee.

Jeffree later clarified that the employee, Kammi, actually lives with Jeffree, and hasn't left his house in weeks. 

On a more positive note, Jeffree did announce that his warehouse would not be producing any makeup, but instead would be creating hand sanitizer for healthcare employees. What a rollercoaster!