{"id":773535,"date":"2026-07-02T04:29:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T04:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/773535\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T04:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T04:29:13","slug":"eminem-australian-trademark-battle-rapper-loses-legal-fight-against-beach-brand-swim-shady","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/773535\/","title":{"rendered":"Eminem Australian trademark battle: Rapper loses legal fight against beach brand Swim Shady"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Rapper Eminem has lost a trademark battle against Australian beach brand Swim Shady, which the star behind hits such as Lose Yourself and Without Me claimed was trading off his alternative moniker \u201cSlim Shady\u201d.<\/p>\n

The rapper\u2019s claim was knocked back after evidence to the trademark adjudication revealed there had only been three recent sales of \u201cSlim Shady\u201d merchandise to customers in Australia.<\/p>\n

Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Mathers III, had attempted to effectively block the Australian brand from trading under the name Swim Shady here, in a case that could have global ramifications for his ownership of the phrase.<\/p>\n

\"EminemEminem has lost a trademark battle against Australian beach brand Swim Shady.Aresna Vilanueva<\/p>\n

But in response, the Australian brand asked trademark authorities to remove numerous categories of goods from the protection of Eminem\u2019s existing trademarks, including \u201cShady\u201d and \u201cShady Limited\u201d.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Eminem<\/a><\/p>\n

In an oversight that has since been corrected, Eminem\u2019s representatives had not trademarked \u201cSlim Shady\u201d as a phrase in Australia.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, a trademark adjudicator, Benjamin Goldsworthy, accepted that Eminem had operated a streetwear brand called Shady since the early 2000s as part of his career as a performer who had sold more than 200 million albums.<\/p>\n

But Goldsworthy noted that Eminem\u2019s enterprises in Australia used the term \u201cShady\u201d almost exclusively in conjunction with other terms associated with his overall brand, such as \u201cI\u2019m the real Slim Shady\u201d, rather than as a mark of origin.<\/p>\n

It also was not used to sell goods such as umbrellas, and evidence tendered to the trademark registry showed only three recent sales of merchandise to customers in Australia.<\/p>\n

In a further blow, Goldsworthy was not persuaded that Eminem had exercised \u201cactual control\u201d over the sale of goods in Australia using the trademark \u2013 as opposed to his label or another business \u2013 which the law requires to preserve the use of trademarks.<\/p>\n

As a result, Goldsworthy ordered that Eminem\u2019s Shady trademarks in Australia be restricted to protecting a narrower category of items. That means Swim Shady will be able to continue selling its beach merchandise, though the case could be appealed.<\/p>\n

Swim Shady, which began selling beach umbrellas, bags and swimwear in late 2024, welcomed the decision. In a statement, co-founder Jeremy Scott, a former executive at NRL club South Sydney Rabbitohs, said he and his partner Elizabeth Afrakoff were grateful for the ruling.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile this is an important milestone for Swim Shady, it is one step in the broader trademark proceedings, and we recognise there are still matters to be resolved,\u201d Afrakoff said.<\/p>\n

Under an international protocol called the Madrid System, trademark results in one country can have a significant impact on the protection of a word or phrase in other jurisdictions.<\/p>\n

Eminem\u2019s legal representatives were contacted for comment.<\/p>\n

The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"NickNick Bonyhady<\/a> is the business editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. He is a former deputy federal editor, technology editor and industrial relations reporter.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":773536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136],"class_list":["post-773535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=773535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}