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.”
Both Zara and Malone have pushed back on the suit, in court and on social media. But while the suit remains in progress, its implications for Malone’s rights to her own name raise questions for how founders should consider lending their names to their brands.
“Naming is a very important and serious consideration, and all of the pros and cons really need to be weighed strongly,” said Elizabeth Sbardellati, head of Greenberg Glusker’s Trademark Protection & Enforcement Group. “Any acquisition where the brand founder’s name is a primary brand asset is going to have strict contractual restrictions and controls over how that founder can use the name going forward, because that’s where the value is for the acquirer.”
Founder-led brands are an increasingly valuable commodity for major beauty players like Sephora, which seek out strong founder stories that can add credibility and distinction to their products. But while naming their brands after themselves may be the obvious choice for those founders, it’s also a potentially thornier proposition in a contemporary beauty environment often motivated by major exits and private equity.
“I think smart founders nowadays are kind of distancing themselves from the eponymous label, which was so prevalent in fashion and beauty for a really long time. And I suspect that at least some of that is a response to the limitations that come when you sell a brand,” said Julie Zerbo, attorney and founder of the legal publication “The Fashion Law,” who called the trend “the arms-length brand” in an article for her site.
“The dynamics and economics of brand-building these days are influenced so much by founders wanting to exit,” said Zerbo. “It’s a drastically different environment [than in 1999]. That’s not to say that people aren’t naming their brands after themselves, but I think we’re seeing it with markedly less frequency.”
Malone is far from the only figure to have lost the right to use her name after selling her brand. Fashion designer Karen Millen failed in her attempt to win back the right to use her name after selling her namesake brand. Bobbi Brown similarly sold her eponymous makeup brand to Estée Lauder — and launched a new makeup brand, named Jones Road, on the exact day her non-compete clause ran out.
But Malone may be under particular fire given that she has loaned her name to Zara — whose $59.90 perfumes made with Jo Loves are about half the price, and prestige, of the ELC-owned Jo Malone fragrances.
“If we’re talking about the core trademark claim of likelihood of confusion or something like that, [it could be that] someone who’s not being particularly discerning sees Jo Malone on the packaging and thinks maybe it’s a sub-brand or a more value brand of Jo Malone, and that the Jo Malone brand is actually associated with Zara, not Jo Malone the person,” said Sbardellati.
The collaboration is not new, however — it dates back to 2019 when Jo Loves embarked on a long-term collaboration with the fast-fashion giant, beginning with eight fragrances marketed as The Zara Emotions Collection by Jo Loves. Newer releases have expanded to include city-inspired scents, for example. As of May 19, the description on Zara’s website for the Fashionably London fragrance describes the perfume as made in “collaboration with perfumer Ms. Jo Malone CBE, founder of Jo Loves.”
Zara has argued that its use of the Jo Malone name is consistent with existing guidance set forth by Estée Lauder. ITX, the U.K. subsidiary of Zara’s parent company Inditex, stated in its defense filing that the company raised a complaint in 2020 regarding the use of “Jo Malone” on Zara’s Weibo account, but that Estée Lauder lawyers cleared the use of the name that same year.
But whether or not the use of the phrase “Jo Malone” on perfume bottles and product descriptions amounts to a breach of Malone’s agreement with Estée Lauder is a potentially legal gray area.
“There will be terms in connection with that [1999] deal about how Jo Malone, the individual, can use her name, and probably how she can’t. But it’s not going to be an exhaustive list of things saying how she can and cannot use the name. That’s just generally not how contracts work, or else they would be so, so long,” said Zerbo. “I suspect there is probably some room for interpretation here. Estée Lauder will argue that that window of opportunity for using the name is much smaller than Jo Malone, the individual, will argue that it is.”
A spokesperson for The Estée Lauder Companies declined to comment for this story and referred back to the statement the company issued when the suit was filed, which reads in part:
“When Ms. Jo Malone sold the brand to The Estée Lauder Companies in 1999, she agreed to clear contractual terms that included refraining from using the Jo Malone name in certain commercial contexts, including the marketing of fragrances. She was compensated as part of this agreement, and for many years, she abided by its terms.
“Ms. Malone’s use of the name ‘Jo Malone’ in connection with recent commercial ventures goes beyond that legal agreement and undermines Jo Malone London’s unique brand equity.”
When reached for comment, Jo Loves referred to a statement Malone issued on her personal social media, which reads in part:
“Whilst I sold the company called Jo Malone London Limited and the trademark JO MALONE to Estee Lauder 27 years ago, I obviously did not sell my own name. The contract with Estee Lauder allowed me to use my own name in a personal capacity, which I have been doing for JO LOVES for 15 years. The collaboration with Zara has been running for 7 years and the packaging does nothing more than identify me, Jo Malone CBE and founder of JO LOVES, as the perfumer.”
Malone has expressed regret over selling her name back in 1999. Today’s founders like Hailey Bieber, who is a year on from selling her Rhode brand to E.l.f. Beauty for $1 billion, may not be faced with such a conundrum.
Executive moves:
- Stila Cosmetics names Daniel M. Annese as CEO. Annese was previously a board advisor to the brand and held senior roles at the Estée Lauder Companies.
- Bath & Body Works names Vimla Black Gupta evp of marketing and innovation. She previously held roles at Equinox and Colgate-Palmolive and is a co-founder of skin-care brand Ourself.
News to know:
- Bluemercury shoppers will be able to use their HSA and FSA accounts on select products. Through a partnership with HSA/FSA growth platform Flex, Bluemercury customers can use their pre-tax healthcare dollars on eligible products purchased online, including SPF and acne treatments, and high-end skin care like Augustinus Bader and La Mer.
- Chanel plans to open 16 fragrance and beauty boutiques in 2026. The French fashion house achieved high-single-digit growth in 2025, thanks in part to new creative director Matthieu Blazy reinvigorating interest in the brand.
- First Aid Beauty to launch on the Amazon Premium Beauty store. The skin-care brand will arrive on Amazon on May 26, joining beauty brands like Rabanne and Charlotte Tilbury that have launched on the e-commerce platform in recent months.
Stat of the week:
Nearly one in five TikTok users in the U.S. are Baby Boomers, according to data from YouGov. Of those Baby Boomer users, 48% use social media to research brands and products.
In the headlines:
The Ordinary’s stunts are getting bolder. How far can they go? A Zillennial ode to the 2010s smoky eye. Is the secret to men’s longevity a great butt?
Listen in:
In today’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, veteran L’Oréal Group executive Vania Lacascade walks host Lexy Lebsack through her vision for L’Oréal Group’s continued expansion into longevity, the Lancôme launch that kicked it off, and how the team is leveraging celebrity ambassadors like Demi Moore and Zoe Saldaña to spread the word.
Need a Glossy recap?
Can Google win the wellness data collection race with its new AI Health Coach? Wellness Briefing: The rise of body composition scales as value-adds in gyms and resorts, plus news. Hims & Hers to launch an AI agent focused on the weight-loss journey. Fragrance layering makes its way to the mall.
