Hailey Bieber’s new skincare line has been given the green light to carry on trading amid a legal battle.
The 25-year-old wife of Justin Bieber launched her own curated skincare brand on June 15, titled Rhode. The name derives simply from Hailey’s own middle name.
A week after releasing the line, clothing company RHODE announced that they were going to sue the model for trademark infringement.
As previously reported by Monsters and Critics, RHODE claimed Hailey’s brand name was too similar to the one they had already trademarked. The clothing brand, which was founded by two women back in 2013, also argued that the model’s logo looked too similar to its own.
RHODE continued to explain that Hailey previously tried to purchase the Rhode trademark from RHODE but the brand’s owners refused to sell it.
Hailey’s defense was that her brand was solely for skincare, while RHODE was for clothing — two completely different business sectors.
Hailey Bieber wins initial legal battle over RHODE
After being taken to court, Hailey’s company was cleared to temporarily continue using the name Rhode name on Friday afternoon. A federal judge denied RHODE’s motion for a preliminary injunction.
Immediately after, the model released a new YouTube video for her line, titled “the making of rhode.”
“Skincare in itself is something I’ve been really passionate about for a long time,” Hailey said on starting Rhode. “I think that if you’re not passionate about the brand that you’re trying to start then there’s no point in doing it.”
Hailey continued to say that the idea to create her own skincare line came during the “quiet time” during the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
“I started reading books, I started doing these online courses for dermatology and skincare, and that is when I started making the calls to say, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing, this is my idea, how can we execute this.'”
Hailey Bieber always knew she wanted to name her brand Rhode
When it came to choosing the name for her line, Hailey had no second thoughts about calling it Rhode — especially since it was a meaningful family name for the model.
“I always knew I wanted to create a brand around the name Rhode and create this world of Rhode,” she said in the video.
“Rhode is my middle name, it’s my mom’s middle name, to me it always sounded like it flowed so nicely.”
The model continued to talk about the importance of family while creating her brand, explaining that her grandmother and mother passed down different skincare techniques that inspired her to follow through with the making of Rhode.
Although Hailey’s skincare line has been cleared to continue using its name, Rhode is currently all sold out on its website with customers directed to join the waitlist.
In response to the latest ruling, a spokesperson for RHODE said, “Since we filed our lawsuit to protect our company, customers, partners, and too many others to count have reached out to let us know how much they care about our brand. We are deeply moved as this support means the world to us.
“Our lawsuit continues. Friday’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. It is exceedingly rare for a judge to issue the preliminary order we sought, and so we expected this outcome.
“We remain confident that we will win at trial. “Rhode” is our name and brand, we built it, and federal and state laws protect it. We ask Hailey to achieve her goals without using the brand name we have spent the last nine years building.
“Our team remains focused on continuing to grow our brand and thank you again to everyone for your support.”