A young businesswoman is granting a ’90s pop sensation their wish by renaming her seasoning brand, originally called Spyce Girlz.

“I was prepared to stand my ground,” shares Lily Bond from Ottawa, Canada. “I wanted to defend the name and continue using it. Ultimately, it’s not about being right; it’s about who can afford the ongoing battle.”

Lily, now 22, began her venture into seasoning mixes alongside her mother at local farmers’ markets when she was just 13, aiming to save enough for a laptop. “People started referring to us as the Spice Girls,” she reminisces.

Her enterprise evolved into Spyce Girlz Seasonings, offering over a dozen blends available online and in select Canadian stores. Lily insists she never foresaw any issues with the iconic band.

“We’re in separate countries and industries, and the spelling is entirely different,” she notes. “We assumed it would be acceptable.”

Nonetheless, Lily took the precaution of hiring a consultant to investigate trademark concerns.

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.

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

‘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.’

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’

In a letter to CIPO dated May 2, 2025, Lily tried unsuccessfully to convince CIPO to give her more time to submit the required documents. 

‘We remain actively engaged in the process and continue to use the SPYCE GIRLZ SEASONINGS trademark in commerce,’ she wrote, adding that the lawyers for Spice Girls Limited ‘has not, in our view, met the necessary burden of proof in demonstrating that our trademark constitutes infringement.’

Lily says she made the call in October last year to give up the battle and rebrand her company.

‘Who has all the resources and who has all the money? It’s not me,’ she says. ‘I just abandoned the trademark. That’s what they wanted me to do, so I complied.’

Lily acknowledges that the lawyers representing the Spice Girls never threatened her with a lawsuit.

Contacted by the Daily Mail, a representative for Smart & Biggar declined to say if it considers the dispute resolved: ‘We do not comment on client matters.’

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.

Lily, who describes herself as a fan of ’80s bands like Tears For Fears and Rush, says she doesn’t believe any of the Spice Girls – Victoria Beckham, Mel B, Mel C, Emma Bunton and Geri Halliwell Horner – are behind the battle against her brand.

But she explained she thought the Spice Girls were supposed to be about girl power. ‘If this is what they’re preaching, why would they do this?

‘I really hope they are encouraging female empowerment because I’m sure a lot of young women look up to them in that way,’ says Lily. ‘I’m all about girl power, so this kind of situation doesn’t really make any sense.

Lily says she will soon reveal her company’s new branding. ‘We’ve got a name picked out,’ she says. ‘It’s going to be really great, it’s going to be really fitting for the brand.’