Hailey Bieber must be breathing a sigh of relief right now!
According to TMZ, the 25-year-old model just legally won the right to keep the name of her skincare company Rhode after being sued for trademark infringement by a clothing company of the same name. As you may recall, entrepreneurs Purna Khatau and Phoebe Vickers, as well as their clothing and lifestyle company RHODE-NYC, LLC, filed a lawsuit against Hailey to block her from using their brand’s moniker last month.
Court documents obtained by ET at the time stated that the two women believed the skincare line would “quickly swamp” their business’s “market presence, confuse the marketplace and ultimately destroy the goodwill and reputation of the RHODE brand.” Basically, they argued that having two companies by the same name would become super confusing for the public, and their business potentially would get lost in the fold if the media personality continued using the same name.
To make matters worse, Hailey allegedly reached out to them four years ago to purchase the trademark – but when they refused to hand it over, she (obviously) went forward with the plan to use the name anyway! The doc said:
“ previously sought to acquire the RHODE mark, appreciating that the brands could not coexist without confusion. Given the sacrifices they had made to build the brand, Khatau and Vickers refused.”
No wonder why Purna and Phoebe were upset when Hailey finally launched her new biz venture! But unfortunately for them, it looks like their efforts were not successful. In court on Friday afternoon, Hailey argued that her company is solely focused on skincare products, not clothing, so there would not be any confusion for consumers. A federal judge ended up agreeing with Justin Bieber’s wife and denied the clothing company’s motion for a preliminary injunction.
This is a huge legal win for Hailey, and she wasted no time in celebrating it by releasing a behind-the-scenes documentary, “The Making of Rhode” on her YouTube channel! Her lawyers actually submitted the video in court after the clothing company also filed a complaint over its release – but the judge did not see a reason to have it shelved. And now it is already out there for the world to see, much to the chagrin of Purna and Phoebe! The influencer even explained why she wanted to call the line Rhode in the behind-the-scenes footage, saying:
“I always knew I wanted to create a brand around the name Rhode, and create this world of Rhode. Rhode is my middle name, it’s my mom’s middle name. To me, it always sounded like it flowed so nicely.”
Clearly, it is a good name for a brand considering this legal battle over it. You can ch-ch-check out the video (below):
For now, it looks like Hailey can put this legal mess behind her and put all her attention into creating some great products for everyone! Reactions to her victory, Perezcious readers? Sound OFF in the comments (below)!
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