Hailey Bieber Has Won Her Trademark Infringement Case for Rhode Skin
Update July 24 at 10:30 A.M.: Hailey Bieber has temporarily won the legal right to continue to call her skincare brand Rhode, after she was sued by a New York clothing company by the same name for trademark infringement. On Friday, a federal judge denied the fashion brand's motion for a preliminary injunction for Hailey to not use the name Rhode for her skincare line without prejudice.
"We are pleased with the court's thorough order denying plaintiff's motion to preliminarily enjoin Hailey's new company and skincare line," Hailey's family lawyer, Michael Rhodes, said in a statement to E! News. However, Rhode NYC is not giving up its legal battle. "Our lawsuit continues," a spokesperson for the company said in a statement. "Today's court ruling is simply a decision by the judge not to prohibit Hailey Bieber's skin care line from using our brand name while litigation proceeds, deferring the ruling until we have the opportunity to gather more evidence."
Hailey Bieber's brand-new skincare line, Rhode, is already facing legal issues. According to the Wall Street Journal, Rhode, a fashion brand based in New York City, filed a legal injunction against Bieber's Rhode skincare, citing both trademark infringement and unfair competition. Bieber, Rhodedeodato Corp, and HRBeauty LLC are listed as defendants in the case against Rhode-NYC. Rhode, co-founded by Purna Khatau and Phoebe Vickers in 2014, has three trademarks that cover clothing, textiles, and "women's clothing, hair accessories, dolls, puzzles, and holiday ornaments." WSJ notes that Bieber filed a trademark for Rhode at the United States Patent and Trademark Office back in May, but that the case hasn't yet come under review.
Since the launch of Rhode skincare, the women behind Rhode (the fashion brand) explain that there has been confusion from customers who believe that they launched a skincare line with Hailey Bieber and that there's some confusion with the brands' respective social media handles and websites.
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"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," a statement from Rhode co-founders reads. "We admire Hailey. She has worked hard and earned the ability to create her own skin care line. 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 'RHODE' that we've built. That is why we ask her to change the brand of her new skin-care line. It clearly means a lot to her, but the brand Rhode is everything we have worked hard to achieve, and her using our name is hurting our company, our employees, our customers, and our partners."
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Lisa T. Simpson of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, the team representing Rhode the fashion brand, issued a statement after the filing, calling the situation "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," she said. "What Ms. Beiber is doing is harming a minority co-owned business that two women have painstakingly built into a growing, global brand."
