Hailey Bieber Sued for Trademark Infringement After Launching Skincare Line
American model and media personality, Hailey Baldwin Bieber has had a lawsuit filed against her for alleged trademark infringement after she launched a skincare line with the same name, which also happens to be her middle name.
Bieber has been sued by a 9-year-old fashion company, Rhode that incidentally shares the name of her skincare line, Rhode – which is her middle name.
According to a documents obtained by People, the company’s co-founders of Rhode, Purna Khatau and Phoebe Vickers filed the suit against Bieber in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Tuesday.
In the lawsuit, Khatau and Vickers explained that they launched the company in May 2013 and have since “dedicated ourselves to growing and nurturing the RHODE brand through much personal sacrifice and hardship.”
They added that the company has grow to become a reputable brand sold in luxury stores, including Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus and worn by celebrities like Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Mindy Kaling.
According to the lawsuit, the company is expected to make $14.5 million this year.
It should be recalled that Bieber launched her Rhode skincare line earlier this month while the founders of Rhodes said they immediately began to see “confusion in the marketplace,” which has already hurt their brand.
The lawsuit alleges that Instagram first promised the @rhode handle to the designers since it was “dormant per Instagram policy, but after initially promising it to us, Instagram decided to allow Ms. Bieber to use it even though it had no posts until June 8, 2022.”
The lawsuit also notes a joint Instagram post with Bieber’s personal account (followed by more than 45 million users), which garnered more than 600,000 likes at the time of the filing.
“We have real concerns about the future,” Khatau says in the lawsuit. “We put blood, sweat, and tears into this brand for years … It is disappointing to me that an entrepreneurial woman, whom we’ve long been fans of, is trying to stifle what we have built.”
