Hailey Bieber Sued For Trademark Infringement Over Rhode Skincare Line ( Photo Credit – Instagram )
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Hailey Bieber, nee Baldwin, launched her skincare line – Rhode skincare, on June 15, Just a week since then, the model and her brand are in hot water as Hailey is being sued for trademark infringement by a 9-year-old fashion brand of the same name.
As per reports coming in, the model has been sued by the clothing company Rhode NYC. In their filing, the company claims that Hailey and her business – taken from the model’s middle name, could easily wash away all the hard work they’ve put into their brand. Read on to know all the details.
As reported by Page Six, Rhode‘s legal team claims Hailey Bieber tried to acquire the trademark from design duo Purna Khatau and Phoebe Vickers in 2018. Despite their refusal, Mrs Bieber allegedly went forward with launching her own Rhode brand anyway. Lisa T. Simpson, the lead litigation counsel to Rhode, told the publication via email, “She did this despite knowing of Rhode and its prior rights.”
Further talking about Hailey Bieber taking on Rhode as the name of her skincare line despite there already being a fashion brand of the same name, Lisa said “It’s an unfortunate circumstance. We, of course, understand that Hailey wants to use her middle name for her brand, but the law on this is clear: you can’t create this kind of brand confusion just because you want to use your name. What Mrs. Bieber is doing is harming a minority co-owned business that two women have painstakingly built into a growing, global brand.”
In a separate statement shared with the publication, Rhode co-founders Khatau and Vickers claim they were “forced” to file the lawsuit “in order to protect our business.” The duo said, “While a global brand, we are still a young and growing company, and we cannot overcome a celebrity with Hailey’s following using our company’s name to sell related products. We don’t want to sue Hailey; we want to celebrate her. As fellow women entrepreneurs, we wish her every success. Hailey has hard-earned star power and influence. She could choose any brand for her company. We have only the brand that we’ve built.”
As per the lawsuit filed, the business owners of the fashion brand are asking the court to block Bieber from using the Rhode name to avoid any confusion between their brands. The filing states that “the magnitude of Bieber’s following and the virality of her marketing will cause immediate, ongoing and irreparable harm to the Rhode brand.”
Stay tuned to Koimoi for more updates on this lawsuit and news from the entertainment world.
