Spice Girls’ lawyers threaten to sue Canadian entrepreneur over brand name

‘Spyce Girlz’ owner Lily Bond says the name came about from customer interactions when she sold her spice blends at farmers markets. Judy Trinh reports.

A young Ottawa entrepreneur is being forced to change the name of her company after lawyers for the supergroup Spice Girls threatened to sue her for trademark infringement.

Lily Bond, 22, started her own line of food seasonings, “SPYCE GIRLZ” nine years ago. She will now have to abandon the name, just as major grocery stores across Canada have expressed interest in carrying her product.

In 2017, at the age of 13, Bond started selling her taco spice at farmers’ markets as a way to earn extra money to buy a laptop for school. Bond and her mother became regular fixtures at local markets, where customers regularly referred to the duo as the “spice girls.”

The name stuck.

To differentiate her brand from the supergroup, Bond replaced the “I” in spice with a “Y” and put a “Z” at the end of “girls.”

“There was a cult following, and the lines just started growing and growing — then grocery stores started carrying me,” Bond told CTV News.

What started as a side hustle turned into a full-time job after she graduated from high school. Although she’s taking business management at the University of Ottawa, Bond spends more time mixing ingredients in a commercial kitchen and dealing with inventory than she does in classes.

In January 2022, Bond applied to Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada to trademark “Spyce Girlz Seasonings.” It was approved in October 2023.

But less than three months after getting federal approval, the Spice Girls made it clear what they really, really want.

‘How did they even know about us?’

In a letter sent by courier, lawyers from the Ottawa law firm Smart & Biggar notified Bond that their clients, Spice Girls, were opposing her trademark application for her seasonings.

“They were an international pop group. How did they even know about us?” Bond said, adding that the band’s legal action left her confused.

“They built a brand around female empowerment. … I thought it was about women supporting women.”

The letter dated Jan. 29, 2024 states that the British female pop group has sold more than 105 million records worldwide, “making them the best‑selling female group of all time,” and the “most successful British pop act since the Beatles.”

The lawyers said that Bond’s SPYCE GIRLZ brand is “likely to lead the average Canadian consumer to mistakenly believe that your goods are somehow associated with our clients.” It was also noted that the term SPYCE GIRLZ is identical in sound to the name of the pop group.

“In order for our client to preserve and protect the validity and value of its trademark,” Smart & Biggar demanded that Bond withdraw her trademark and destroy all the “articles, packaging, or other matter in your possession” with the labels.

If there was no “immediate compliance,” the lawyers for the Spice Girls threatened to commence “legal and opposition proceedings.”

‘I didn’t want to be timid’

Bond is not a Spice Girls fan. She prefers AC/DC, and as the hard rockers would sing — she’s got spunk. Bond found out that despite protecting their trademark on hundreds of items from cosmetics to clothes, to video cameras and games to shoes and pens, the Spice Girls did not list “seasonings” as a protected good.

Unwilling to give up nearly a decade of work without a fight, Bond filed a Section 45 proceeding to force the pop icons to defend their trademark categories in Canada.

“I didn’t want to be timid and just kind of take it and move on,” said Bond, who has learned to advocate for herself through entrepreneurship.

Since receiving the cease‑and‑desist letter in 2024, the pressure on Bond has grown. Her product line has expanded beyond taco spice to include Montreal steak, Greek, and Sunday dinner seasonings. Spyce Girlz is now in 150 Ontario grocery stores including Farm Boy and Longo’s.

Bond says her spices are bringing in more than $100,000 and she can’t afford to hire a lawyer to take on a pop group with deep pockets in a protracted fight.

“I was representing myself, and I kind of had to make the decision: do I continue with this battle… or do I continue putting it into operations?”

Bond says she’s exhausted after navigating intellectual property legal matters on her own for nearly a year. She has made the decision to give up the trademark fight so she can focus on growing the company.

“I’m just going to have to keep my head held high and find another name.”

She also has to get rid of 10,000 packages of SPYCE GIRLZ seasonings before she can relaunch under a new name that is yet to be determined.