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A young entrepreneur is giving what they really, really want – of her line of seasoning mix, Spyce Girlz.
'I really wanted to fight,' says Lily Bond, of Ottawa, . 'I was the name and keep going with it. At the end of the day, it's not necessarily about what's right. It's about who can afford to keep fighting.'
Lily, 22, started selling seasoning mixes at farmers' markets with her mother when she was 13, in hopes of raising enough money to buy a laptop. 'People would call us the Spice Girls,' she .
The business grew into Spyce Girlz Seasonings, which offers more than a dozen blends online and in some Canadian stores. Lily claims she never imagined a conflict with the Spice Girls.
'We're in a different country, different industries. It's a completely different spelling,' she says. 'We thought it should be fine.'
To be sure, Lily hired a consultant to research the trademark.
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Lily Bond, of Ottawa, Canada, is conceding in the battle over her seasoning company's name, Spyce Girlz, two years after receiving a cease-and-desist letter from the '90s girl group Spice Girls
Customers at her early farmers' market stall called her the 'Spice Girls,' inspiring Lily's brand - but she never imagined it would spark a feud with the real group, she told the Daily Mail
Lily, 22, started selling seasoning mixes at farmers’ markets to save up for a laptop, but the brand’s success has grown to include more than a dozen blends online and in select Canadian stores
According to Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) records, London-based Spice Girls Limited's trademark was registered in August 2006 for a long list of goods and services – but not spices.
In January 2022, Lily applied to CIPO to trademark Spyce Girlz Seasonings and, in October 2023, it was approved for publication on the CIPO website – meaning only that it was available for public review.
Three months later, the fledgling company received a letter from the law firm representing London-based Spice Girls Limited in Canada.
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Philip Lapin of Smart & Biggar told Lily to 'stop trading under the name SPYCE GIRLZ and to withdraw the application.'
Lapin said the Spice Girls 'has developed valuable and protectable goodwill and reputation' and argued that Spyce Girlz is 'likely to lead the average Canadian consumer to mistakenly believe that your goods are somehow associated with our client.'
In a video message she shared on Instagram, Lily called the request 'an overreach' because the names are spelled differently and the Spice Girls do not have a line of seasoning mixes.
Lily applied to trademark Spyce Girlz Seasonings with the CIPO in January 2022 and was approved for public review in October 2023 - but three months later, she received a letter from the law firm representing London-based Spice Girls Limited in Canada
Spice Girls Limited's trademark was registered in Canada in August 2006 for a long list of goods and services, but not spices - leading Lily to hire a consultant to research the trademark
The lawyer wrote that Lily's use of the name Spyce Girlz would 'lead the average Canadian consumer' to believe the brand was associated with the girl group
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'And,' she added, 'their peak was like 30 years ago.'
In its statement of opposition to CIPO in February 2024, Smart & Biggar claimed Bond's application 'was filed in bad faith since it constitutes an attempt to … seek to trade off of the reputation' of the Spice Girls and 'would be likely to have the effect of depreciating the value of goodwill attaching' to the pop group.
'While the trademark and trade names were initially known in the context of a musical band, the mark and trade names have now become known in association with a wide range of goods and services beyond the context of music,' reads the filing.
Lily says she subsequently received emails from the law firm advising her that she was unlikely to be successful.
'They really wanted me to back down,' she recalls. 'I became more and more intimidated.'
According to CIPO records, Lily's trademark application was 'deemed abandoned' on April 24, 2025, due to her 'failure to submit … evidence or statement within the deadline.'
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On Sunday, Lily posted a viral Instagram video calling the trademark clash with the girl group an overreach, but said she didn’t have the funds to keep fighting
Philip Lapin of Smart & Biggar was the one who instructed Lily to stop trading under the name Spyce Girlz and later said her 'efforts' were 'unlikely to be successful'
Lily told the Daily Mail that last October was when she decided it was time to give up the battle and rebrand her name
Spice Girls Limited previously objected to another Canadian trademark application for Spice Curls, a personal care applicance company, in 1999 - it was withdrawn four months later
This was not the first time Spice Girls Limited has objected to a trademark application by a Canadian business: In 1999, it filed opposition to an application to trademark Spice Curls by a company selling personal care appliances. The application was withdrawn four months later.
