FKA Twigs has won the first stage of the trademark infringement trial against indie group The Twigs.
Legal disputes between the two artists date back over 10 years, and they went to court in 2014 after the indie group sued FKA Twigs (real name Tahliah Barnett) for allegedly infringing on the trademark that they had been using since 1996.
They lost that initial injunction request and dropped the lawsuit. Things picked up again in 2024, however, when The Twigs issued a cease-and-desist letter to Barnett, demanding that she stop using the name after she applied for a trademark of her own.
FKA Twigs then filed a lawsuit against the band and claimed that they were trying to “weaponise” baseless claims in order to get money from her.
The singer, actor and dancer filed a lawsuit against the band – made up of sisters Laura Good and Linda Good – earlier this year. In the suit, she asked a judge to rule that her stage name does not infringe on the name used by the LA band.
FKA Twigs Wins First Round in Legal Trademark Battle With Indie Band The Twigshttps://t.co/ZqEJP5pI8e
— billboard (@billboard) August 19, 2026
The group then filed a counterclaim against her, alleging that she was using her fame and money to “destroy” their trademark.
Now, FKA Twigs has won the first stage of the trademark infringement trial. Yesterday (Tuesday August 18), U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff ruled that the claims of infringement by The Twigs were too outdated, and cited the doctrine of laches, which “prohibits the unreasonable delay of legal action” (as per Billboard).
According to court documents obtained by the outlet, the judge said that the band members were “aware of Barnett’s allegedly infringing activity as early as 2013 when the parties exchanged emails, and certainly no later than 2014 when the Goods sued Barnett alleging trademark infringement”.
Judge Rakoff also highlighted that the sister duo did not take any legal action against FKA Twigs releasing music under that name until “2024 and did not bring the instant claims until 2026” – meaning that they went a decade with their claims laying fallow.
The ruling means that Barnett cannot be sued for infringing the trademark of the indie band.
While that ruling has been made final, there are still the accusations made by Barnett that the band pressured her to change her name that are yet to be resolved.
Back in May, when the countersuit against Barnett was filed by the band, Rolling Stone reported that the court documents outlined that Barnett offered the duo $15,000 to allow their musical entities to “co-exist”, but was turned down by the group.
Barnett’s legal team also argued that it was “inconceivable” that people would confuse the two artists – saying that FKA Twigs has 3.2million monthly listeners on Spotify and over 300 million views on YouTube, while the band have “simply disappeared” and have just “705 followers on Instagram and 25 monthly listeners on Spotify”.
“The parties operate in entirely different commercial ecosystems,” it added, accusing The Twigs of having “threatened to seek an injunction preventing Barnett from using her stage name, [and] demanded a significant seven-figure payout to release any alleged claims against Barnett.”
FKA Twigs released the ‘EUSEXUA’ album last year, which was given a glowing five-star review by NME. Her track ‘Room Of Fools’ also landed at Number 25 on our 50 best songs of 2025 list.
Since then, she has also shared the follow-up album ‘EUSEXUA Afterglow’, which earned four stars from NME.
