‘RHONY’ Star Bethenny Frankel Furious With Wannabe Skinnygirl Sonja Morgan’s Tipsy Girl

Bethenny Frankel is officially at war with Real Housewives of New York co-star Sonja Morgan. According to the Daily Mail, Frankel is not pleased with Morgan launching her own line of alcoholic drinks, which she has named Tipsy Girl, and has made the necessary steps to trademark a close proximation of her rival’s brand name.

Apparently, Frankel is attempting to own the rights to the name Tipsygirl, as Morgan’s new product closely resembles the name of Frankel’s Skinnygirl collection. However, Morgan already owns the naming rights to Tipsy Girl (two words). Unless Frankel plans to launch a Tipsygirl line, the motivations behind her latest legal move is a little unclear.

That being said, Page Six is reporting that Frankel’s recent move was made in order protect the “intellectual property” of her Skinnygirl brand. “We always focus on protecting Bethenny Frankel’s Skinnygirl intellectual property to mitigate any confusion in the marketplace,” a rep of the company stated.

At the same time, this is not the first time that Frankel has used the legal system to fight potential competitors. In fact, Frankel sued two individuals, Travis and Stacey Labarge, this past fall for using her Skinnygirl trademark in order to sell a weight loss product. For her part, Frankel demanded that the couple stop using her brand name and pay her for damages.

The Skinnygirl collection has proved to be very lucrative for Bethenny Frankel, who managed to sell it to Beam Global back in 2011 for $100 million. Obviously, Morgan’s latest launch of her own line of wine and mixed drinks is an attempt to manufacture similar results, as the reality star makes her own way into the alcohol industry.

Morgan unveiled her new line of products during her own birthday party last month, much to the displeasure of Frankel. During the party, Morgan treated her guest with a taste of her company’s new Tipsy Girl Prosecco.

While Morgan’s new products have received plenty of attention because of the similarity in name to Frankel’s collection, one of Morgan’s partners, Peter Guimaraes, recently stated that their brand is not an attempt to copy anything Frankel has done in the past.

“[Frankel] is threatened by this Tipsy Girl brand, which is not a copycat nor competition for Skinnygirl,” he told TMZ. “We are not advocating that you will lose weight with our product … I have already retained an attorney to handle Miss Frankel’s sneaky and illegal move.”

Meanwhile, Frankel did not let her ongoing battle with Morgan stop her from celebrity the holidays. In fact, in a recent message on Twitter, Frankel revealed that she held a total of three parties over the holiday.

“Hosted 3 holiday parties this week. And my tree just fell down,” Frankel wrote. “I need to drink vodka now. Not shilling MY booze. I’d drink moonshine.”

According to Star Pulse, Frankel’s parties were held while her daughter was spending time away with her ex-husband, Jason Hoppy. At this time, it is not clear on how many of her co-stars from the Real Housewives of New York were invited to the parties. That being said, filming for the upcoming season is currently underway, and Frankel has been sighted with Dorinda Medley and Carole Radziwill.

At the same time, Ramona Singer, Morgan, and Luann De Lesseps have yet to be seen filming for the new season. If Morgan was invited to one of Frankel’s parties, it is probably safe to say that she didn’t bring along any of her new wine.

The new season of the Real Housewives of New York is expected to premiere sometime in 2016.

Tell us! Do you think that Sonja Morgan is ripping off Bethenny Frankel’s Skinnygirl with Tipsy Girl? Let us know in the comments below.

[Image via Bravo]