What the Estée Lauder-Jo Malone lawsuit means for eponymous brands

This week, I checked in on the ongoing lawsuit between Estée Lauder and Jo Malone, her Jo Loves brand and Zara. Additionally, some beauty consumers can now use their HSA/FSA funds to buy La Mer, and Chanel’s upswing means more beauty and fragrance boutiques on the horizon. In suing Jo Malone and Zara, Estée Lauder sends a cautionary tale to founders opting for namesake brands

To some consumers, the name Jo Malone is synonymous not with Jo Malone the person, but with Jo Malone the perfume line. In 1999, Malone sold her eponymous fragrance brand to the Estée Lauder Companies, and along with it, the right to use her name in certain commercial contexts. She left the brand altogether in 2006 and founded the fragrance brand Jo Loves in 2011, following the end of her non-compete clause.

Who the name belongs to — when it comes to marketing perfume, at least — is now the subject of a highly-publicized lawsuit. In March, the Estée Lauder Companies filed a lawsuit in U.K. courts against Malone, Jo Loves and Zara over the use of Malone’s name on a fragrance. The suit concerns a collaborative fragrance from Jo Loves and Zara, whose packaging and online description contained the phrase “Created by Jo Malone CBE, founder of Jo Loves.”