Kim Kardashian Sues Doctor Who Used Her Face To Hawk His 'Vampire Facial'

Kim Kardashian has filed a federal lawsuit against a doctor who claims to have invented the Vampire Facelift.

According to court documents obtained by The Blast, Kimberly Kardashian West, along with her company Kimsaprincess Inc., sued Dr. Charles Runels, the American Cosmetic Cellular Medicine Association & Advanced Dermatology & Cosmetic Laser Care, a Medical Corporation.

Kardashian accuses the defendants of copyright infringement and false association.

Runerls’ claims to be the, “Inventor of O-Shot®, Vampire Facelift®, Priapus Shot®, & Vampire Breast Lift®.” He runs the company American Cosmetic Cellular Medicine Association.

Kim says, “Defendant Charles Runels is a doctor in Alabama. In characteristically self-promoting fashion, he describes himself alternatively as the “Orgasm Doctor” and the “Calvin Klein of medicine.” To that end, while he appears to maintain a small practice in Alabama, most of his time is spent touting the various cosmetic procedures he has purported to trademark—including, as relevant here, the Vampire Facial (as well as the Orgasm Shot, the Vampire Facelift, and the Vampire Breast Lift). To hear Runels tell it, the point of medical trademarking is to “protect patients by limiting advertising of these procedures to providers who agree to follow specific methods and to use FDA approved devices,” in much the same way that “a Calvin Klein tag goes on a garment manufactured by another person but who follows Mr. Klein’s design.”

She continues, "But the “protection” of patients who have never heard of Runels, let alone been treated by him, does not pay the bills. The real goal, as the New York Times pointed out in 2011, was to charge other doctors $47 a month to promote their Vampire Facelifts."

On December 7, Runels tweet “Kim Kardashian & The Secret Legal Story Behind the Most Famous Celebrity Vampire Selfie.” He included a link to an article which he authored.

In the article, he used Kardashian’s photo while touting his Vampire Facial procedure. He wrote, “Recently, People reported on Kim Kardashian’s most famous selfie—her face covered in blood after a Vampire Facial®. Here’s the legal story behind the photo; how Dr. Charles Runels, MD created the legal mechanism of the Vampire Facial® procedure to protect women from life threatening diseases.”

Kardashian says she got a vampire facial seven years ago. “And they had certainly never licensed their name in connection with the procedure.”

Kardashian says she was horrified after finding her face plastered all over Runels websites.

The suit says on his website, “Just below a post disclaiming any association with the Vampire Facial provider from which patients had contracted HIV is a photo captioned, “Bar [Refaeli] & Kim Receive the Vampire Facial® Procedure.”

“Runels’ scheme to misappropriate Ms. Kardashian’s hard-earned popularity without her permission is so pervasive that she features prominently in, of all places, his LinkedIn profile. Quite literally, on his profile page, her photo is twice as large as his, as seen below.”

The suit claims, “When Ms. Kardashian reached out to Runels and his trademark attorney to demand that he cease using her name and likeness without her consent, he not only refused to take down the pictures of her and references to her; he had the temerity to demand that she pay him.”

Kardashian says the defendants were never given permission to use her image. She is demanding an injunction prohibiting the doctor from using her face and unspecified damages.

Earlier this year, Kardashian scored a victory in a separate $300 million legal battle. Kardashian’s former partner David Liebensohn sued the reality star over her Kimojis.

The suit says Liebensohn and his partners created a series of “Kimojis.”They claim she loved the idea and promised to work together as a team.

Liebensohn says Kardashian insisted to file the trademarks for the project. The two reached a 60/40 deal and started working

The suit accuses Kardashian of terminating their and making her own “Kimojis”. A judge granted a motion by Kardashian to keep the legal battle out of the pubic eye.