Cosmetics giant, Mana Products Inc., is going out of its way to stop a small, Black-owned business from trademarking its name due to a few similarities.
In a lengthy blog post published on Medium on Tuesday, BLK + GRN Founder Dr. Kristian Henderson wrote that Mana is challenging her company's attempts to trademark her company's name.
Mana Products Inc. is opposing the trademark because they own a company called Black Opal, which recently rebranded itself as BLK/OPL. If you're confused as to why Mana would stop the trademark of a company with a different name, you would be in the same boat as Henderson.
"It feels as if Black Opal is claiming to own the stylized “BLK” version of Black, despite being very far from being a Black company," she wrote.
According to her story, Mana has said in legal filings that "both brands use block letters, both spell Black with the shorthand BLK, and both brands use a symbol followed by three other letters."
However, the two businesses are involved in different industries. Black Opal is a cosmetics company tailored toward Black women. Meanwhile, BLK + GRN is an all-natural Black artisan marketplace for clean, green beauty and wellness products. Despite their differences, Mana has forced Henderson and BLK + GRN to go through a lengthy and costly legal process to defend their application.
Despite being owned by non-Black people, Black Opal's Instagram page is filled exclusively with Black women. In response, Henderson titled her most recent article, "When a White Company Wears Blackface."
Mana made $284.92 million last year and has a team of lawyers ready to fight their battles, but Henderson said the "legal fees could strangle a small start-up company and force us to close our doors."
"BLK + GRN was founded with the purpose of connecting Black women with all-natural products without compromising their values, their health, or their standards," Henderson wrote. She criticized Mana for using Black women to sell their products while stifling a small Black business for nonsensical reasons.
On Instagram, Black women who had been fans of Black Opal's products criticized the company for tricking them into thinking they were run by Black women. Instagram users were also upset that the company was trying to squash small businesses that were actually run by Black people. "As more and more people are making an effort to Buy Black, more and more brands are wearing Blackface," wrote @fiyawata.
"The existence of an actual Black-owned, Black-run, and Black-affirming company that supports over 65 Black women-owned brands is at stake," she said.
"We believe firmly in the power of supporting small Black-owned brands, and we exist as the antithesis of the actions of Black Opal, and others like them."
