A Tale of Two Dakota Skyes

The Name Game

Porn star Dakota Skye (AKA Dakota, Kota Sky and very briefly, Dakota Green) has posted an online petition where she tearfully asks for fans' help in an accompanying video with an ongoing issue she has had with her performing name. Performer Skye has been using the name since 2013 and Skye claims in the video that an ongoing copyright dispute over the name "Dakota Skye" has caused her to lose roles in various adult productions. She also claims that the dancer Skye trademarked the name "Dakota Skye" "illegally" and she asserts her legal right to the name in the video on the page of the petition.

I asked Skye why she could/would not rebrand as performer Dahlia Sky did when a company asserted the rights to her former porn performing name of Bailey Blue. Skye told Fleshbot, "Why change my name when I have the rights to it just as much as she does? [Changing a performer name] destroys your brand and brings less people to your site, features, etc."

I would argue that Sky is doing just fine with her new name, having gotten sixteen AVN Award nominations just in the last two years, but performer Skye doesn't see it that way.

Skye, the feature dancer, has been using the name Dakota Skye professionally since 2008. She is a feature dancer who co-owns and runs her own feature dancer booking company and with the porn performer Skye doing feature dancing gigs in addition to the appearances in adult movies, dancer Skye says that performer Skye's continued use of the name is a hardship for her.

Dancer Skye told Fleshbot, "Along with actively doing adult feature bookings beginning in 2008, my husband and I started our own adult feature booking agency, Sinsational Features, in September of 2012. While on the road doing feature bookings, I gained a lot of club contacts and still continue to gain club contacts. Those clubs know me as Dakota Skye from touring and from my agency. We book showgirls, adult film stars, and specialty acts into many of those clubs. The confusion she has caused using my name throughout social media is very apparent. I have a book of it. So, the thought that there is no overlap in our career paths is completely false. There is absolutely overlap. That is why this girl's claim that she can use my name in adult film without confusion is false. When it comes down to it, there is and always would be confusion."

When I asked dancer Skye about the hardships that performer Skye says she has gone through because of this issue, dancer Skye said, "I believe the issues she has with moving forward with her career is, obviously, not re-branding herself from the start of this conflict but also because of her behavioral issues she has displayed and continues to display in this industry."

Dancer Skye was awarded the trademark to the name in 2015. Performer Skye told Fleshbot that this is all headed back to court and that some fans will be assisting her with that effort in lieu of a planned Gofundme campaign to raise funds for a lawyer to represent her.

When I asked performer Skye why fans should support her in her efforts with this, Skye said, "Fans should support it because I deserve the brand I worked my ass off for when someone else didn't even care enough to trademark it then."