Angelina Jolie opened a Manhattan studio in 2023 in a building where Warhol and Basquiat once worked. She called it Atelier Jolie. There was just one problem: someone else had already claimed that name.
Omnaia Jolie Abdou, an artist and curator in Easton, Pennsylvania, registered Atelier Jolie in 2021—two years before the actress's version launched. Now the two are locked in a trademark dispute that could force Jolie to pay for the right to use the name her team didn't realize was taken.
The Collision
Jolie's New York space was designed as something specific: a working studio and cultural hub. She envisioned classes and workshops for underrepresented tailors and artisans from around the world, alongside Turkish coffee and Syrian pastries. The building's pedigree mattered—it carried the weight of Warhol and Basquiat's presence, a lineage she wanted to honor and extend.
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Start Your News DetoxJolie Abdou's operation, by contrast, is a smaller artistic practice. Her company promotes custom art, apparel, sculptures, pottery, and prints under her own name. The Pennsylvania-based studio is expanding—they're opening a new location in Easton this February—and they're not interested in sharing the Atelier Jolie trademark with a celebrity.
Jolie's legal team has argued there's "no actual competition" between a Manhattan workshop space and a Pennsylvania artist's studio, and that confusion between the two is "virtually impossible." But trademark law doesn't always care about geography or scale. If two businesses use the same name in ways that could confuse consumers, that's a legal problem—even if one is much larger than the other.
What Happens Next
For months, lawyers for both parties have been negotiating. A settlement could mean Jolie pays Jolie Abdou for the trademark rights, or it could mean rebranding the Manhattan space entirely. Either way, someone's name is about to change.
In the meantime, Jolie's New York studio continues its programming. Currently showing work by Jeremy Dennis, a Shinnecock Nation photographer whose art examines Indigenous identity and colonial legacies. The space also features pieces from the Afghan fashion brand Zarif and wearable art from L'enchanteur. The work inside is thoughtful and culturally grounded—the kind of thing that probably deserved a name nobody else had already claimed.
