{"id":343092,"date":"2026-03-12T22:01:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T22:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/343092\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T22:01:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T22:01:10","slug":"estee-lauder-sues-perfumer-jo-malone-for-using-her-own-name-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/343092\/","title":{"rendered":"Est\u00e9e Lauder sues perfumer Jo Malone for using her own name \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

US cosmetics giant Est\u00e9e Lauder Companies has filed legal action against perfumer Jo Malone, her new fragrance brand and Zara\u2019s UK business for using her name.<\/p>\n

British entrepreneur Jo Malone sold her eponymous perfume brand and name rights to Est\u00e9e Lauder Companies in 1999 and stepped down as creative director in 2006. She was bound to a restrictive non-compete contract for five years and a block on her using \u201cJo Malone\u201d for commercial reasons.<\/p>\n

Malone is now being sued by Est\u00e9e Lauder for breach of contract, trademark infringement and \u201cpassing off\u201d \u2013 a term in English law that refers to misleading consumers into thinking that goods or services are connected to another business.<\/p>\n

Malone, who grew up on a council estate in Barnehurst, southeast London and now lives in Dubai, has said that she regretted signing her name away and called it the \u201cbiggest mistake of my life\u201d in several interviews.<\/p>\n

After her non-compete clause expired in 2011, Malone set up a new perfume brand, Jo Loves.<\/p>\n

Last year Jo Loves launched a new affordable perfume collaboration with high street retailer Zara. The perfume\u2019s packaging includes the wording \u201cA creation by Jo Malone CBE, founder of Jo Loves\u201d. <\/p>\n

It is the use of \u201cJo Malone\u201d on Zara\u2019s packaging that has formed the basis of Est\u00e9e Lauder\u2019s lawsuit, which was filed late on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u2018Over a billion eyeballs will be on the parade\u2019: St Patrick\u2019s festival CEO Richard Tierney<\/p>\n

Malone is not the first founder to sell their name rights. Make-up artist Bobbi Brown also sold her eponymous brand to Est\u00e9e Lauder and has since set up \u201cJones Road\u201d, while handbag designer Kate Spade legally changed her own name to Kate Valentine to align with her new brand after forfeiting name rights in a sale to Liz Claiborne in 2007.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for Est\u00e9e Lauder Companies said it had invested substantially in the brand over the past 25 years to expand it internationally.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Ms Jo Malone sold the brand to The Est\u00e9e 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,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was compensated as part of this agreement, and for many years, she abided by its terms. Ms Malone\u2019s use of the name \u2018Jo Malone\u2019 in connection with recent commercial ventures goes beyond that legal agreement and undermines Jo Malone London\u2019s unique brand equity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The spokesperson added: \u201cWe respect Ms Malone\u2019s right to pursue new opportunities. But legally binding contractual obligations cannot be disregarded, and when those terms are breached, we will protect the brand that we have invested in and built over decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jo Malone, Jo Loves and Zara UK did not immediately return a request for comment. \u2013 Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US cosmetics giant Est\u00e9e Lauder Companies has filed legal action against perfumer Jo Malone, her new fragrance brand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,144459],"class_list":["post-343092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-zara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}