Kendall and Kylie Jenner have been hit with cease and desist letters for their new T-shirts featuring their faces superimposed over images of living and dead musicians.
The T-shirts, selling for $125, featured images of the Kendall sisters superimposed over rappers Tupac and Biggie Smalls, aka The Notorious B.I.G., Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne, and members of the bands Metallica, Pink Floyd, Kiss and Led Zeppelin.
Kendall and Kylie, the youngest sisters of the Kardashian-Jenner family, yanked the T-shirts from their websites on Wednesday after receiving cease and letters and scathing public criticism.
Lawyers for the estates of Jim Morrison and Notorious B.I.G. sent cease and desist letters to Kendall and Kylie Jenner, accusing the sisters of using the names and likeness of the musicians without permission, according to Rolling Stone.
Jeff Lampol, manager for the estate for Doors frontman Morrison, accused the sisters of violating Morrison’s right of publicity. “The superimposing of a selfie of Kendall Jenner over the iconic ‘Lion’ portrait of the late Jim Morrison is offensive and remarkable for its failure to recognize the rights of the estate of Mr. Morrison to control the use of his likeness,” Lampol said in a cease and desist letter to the sisters.
“The Doors have recently learned that Kendall + Kylie are selling shirts using the Protected Property without the Doors’ authorization or consent,” the letter said.
“Your use of the registered trademarks in commerce is likely to cause confusion, mistake or to deceive consumers into believing that the Kendall + Kylie apparel was authorized by the Doors when no such authorization was sought or provided by the Doors,” the letter said.
Lampol demanded that Kendall and Kylie Jenner recall the T-shirts from all stores and provide information about all the money they made on the Doors T-shirts by Saturday, July 1.
A lawyer for Violetta Wallace, mother of Notorious B.I.G., also sent a cease letter to the sisters accusing them of using the likeness of the rapper without permission.
Wallace called the T-shirt featuring her son “disrespectful, disgusting, and exploitation at its worst.”
Ozzy Osbourne’s wife, Sharon Osbourne, tweeted, “Girls, you haven’t earned the right to put your face with musical icons. Stick to what you know … lip gloss.”
Kendall and Kylie Jenner apologized in identical Twitter messages on Wednesday.
“These designs were not well thought out and we deeply apologize to anyone that has been upset and/or offended, especially to the families of the artists,” the sisters said on Twitter. “We are huge fans of their music and it was not our intention to disrespect these cultural icons in anyway [sic]. The tee shirts have been pulled from retail and all images have been removed. We will use this as an opportunity to learn from these mistakes and again, we are very sorry.”