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Hailey Bieber Sued for Trademark Infringement Over New Skincare Line ‘Rhode’ By Clothing Company
Legal battle. Hailey Bieber is being sued over the name of her new skincare line, Rhode, less than a week after its launch.
A clothing company by the same name has filed a preliminary injunction with a federal judge in New York asking the model to stop using the name Rhode for her products and find another label for her beauty brand as to protect their trademark for Rhode, according to court documents obtained by Life & Style.
Rhode cofounders Purna Khatau and Phoebe Vickers started their clothing company in 2014 and claim Hailey later tried to purchase the naming rights, but they declined. “Our company’s name is no surprise – four years ago, Hailey tried to buy from us the rights to our brand and we declined,” the pair said in a statement to Life & Style. “Rhode” is also Hailey’s middle name.
“We are two women entrepreneurs who met in college, built the Rhode brand piece-by-piece, and put years of hard work into our minority co-owned company. Today, we were forced to file a lawsuit against Hailey Bieber and her skincare line that launched last week and that is using the brand name ‘Rhode.’ We didn’t want to file this lawsuit, but we had to in order to protect our business,” Khatau and Vickers wrote.
“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 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,” the statement continued.
“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 skincare 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,” the businesswomen added.
Hailey began counting down to her launch in a May 17, 2022, Instagram post showing a close-up of her flawless complexion and wrote, “@rhode is getting closer by the day … see you next month on rhodeskin.com.”
On June 15, the model officially launched her brand. In an Instagram post she gushed, “WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF RHODE. We are a line of curated skincare essentials made with thoughtful intention. Our formulas nourish your skin barrier to instantly give you dewy, delicious skin while improving its look and feel over time.”
Hailey explained, “We spent years working on our formulas with our skin board of dermatologists and chemists to make sure that every Rhode product restores, protects and nurtures your skin. Our formulas only use high-performance ingredients at efficacious levels.” She added hat her products are “suitable for all skin types,” and priced under $30. She has not yet responded to the lawsuit.
